Toilet Training?

You may or may not have noticed that I have been absent from the blog. At the risk of sounding like an old lady, I will just say that a painful arm problem took a lot of my enthusiasm and stuffed it down the proverbial toilet for a good long while. But I have learned to manage it, and I am back. No more to say on issues of my own physicality. As Hugh B. Brown once said, he knew he was getting older when the recitation of his aches and pains started to sound a little too sweet to his own ears. Not going there yet!

Speaking of toilets, I took up residence in a public one for a few minutes this weekend after doing a day's worth of traveling. My next door neighbor was a mother with her little girl, probably about three years old. The little girl, unfortunately, became aware of my presence for obvious reasons. I immediately heard the inquisitive little tattle-tail say (in a loud voice), "Who tooted?" The mother tried to shush her and reason with her, but she was having none of it. "But Mommy, somebody tooted!" Obviously, there was a culprit somewhere in the Ladies Room that needed to be exposed, or there would be no justice in the world. Her sweet little voice rose several decibals as she continued to proclaim that there was a villain in our midst. Should I wait her and her mother out? I imagined the Ladies Room line filling up with giggling, knowing women. Would I have to wait them all out, or should I just emerge shame faced, wash my hands and beat a hasty retreat? Finally, I decided to take matters into my own hands and confess my sin: "It was me," I admitted, "I did it!" If I was a little more dramatic, I would have said, "And I'm glad I did it!" But in this case, I thought that brevity was the better part of valor. The mother and I shared a laugh between the stalls, and the little girl was satisfied. I emerged with a smile, washed my hands, and dragged my suitcase out behind me, wondering who found the experience funnier, me or the little girl's mother. I'm pretty sure I did, since there were no other witnesses :):):)