There is something completely undignified about having to pay attention to what goes on in the restroom. I mean, sometimes someone will make a toilet joke and sometimes maybe someone laughs, but only when it’s someone else he’s laughing at. There is just something essentially private about what happens to food after we eat it.
I have listed before my least favorite tasks connected with children and I think they all revolve around the grosser bodily functions. I just don’t want to have to think about it. But now that Noah is potty training I pay so much attention to his bladder and bowels that I should list ‘Noah’s insides’ under my hobbies and interests. Isaac took Noah to the bathroom today and when he got out I asked him certain questions as to the amount of waste Noah had produced. For bookkeeping purposes, of course. Isaac, helpfully, answered me accurately and in detail. I said thank you and then put my head in my hands and tried to remember why I took this job.
There is something very humbling about potty training and I don’t mean for the child. The child doesn’t care. Noah doesn’t know that there is a cultural taboo on discussing what happened when one uses the facilities nor does he understand it is not considered polite to run naked through the house announcing his toilet success. No, potty training is humbling for the grown-ups involved.
Human beings are fantastically beautiful creatures who were created to reflect the beauty and imagination of the Creator. Our bodies are exquisitely complicated and capable of unbelievable feats of strength and grace. And at the same time we are just plain funny looking. Have you ever contemplated noses? As the proud owner of a pretty silly looking shnozz let me assure you there is no shame in laughing merrily at this fleshy growth protruding from the front of your face. It’s silly looking. And that is just one example. I could write a long post just about noses, but the body is full of oddnesses and silly bits. Next time we see each other ask me about elbows. I could spent a good five minutes just laughing at elbows. But I digress.
The human body manages to combine beauty, grace, strength and splendor with silliness, oddness, and downright grossness. But we are cultured people and we like to forget this last part. But just so we never forget to laugh at ourselves we have children and must teach them what to do with their waste. It is humbling and exalting at the same time. Humbling because I have to be focused on this part of being alive I just really don’t want to think about and exalting because if I do my job right I will not only have taught Noah to go potty in the toilet, but I will have also taught him to laugh at this part of being human. I just hope the second part outweighs the first.