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Hidden Rooms
Jul. 2nd, 2010 07:21 amSince my bathroom has been undergoing remodeling (pictures soon, promise!), I've been thinking a good deal about bathrooms lately. But this is not something that is entirely new to me. The home bathroom has changed from a "necessary"--hidden away, only used as needed--to a status-symbol room, potentially equipped with all kinds of expensive gadgets and luxuries. I was staggered by the amount of money that could be poured into just a fairly basic full bathroom.
One place where the bathroom remains more of a "necessary" is in public places. I have to confess that, over the past few years, I have begun to judge places by their public bathrooms. Now, if I go into a gas station, I expect pretty basic amenities, and I'm pretty happy if they're moderately clean and everything is in working order. My expectations of what a gas station restroom should be are usually met.
However, I find that more often than not, restrooms are an afterthought in even nicer eating establishments and public spaces (grocery stores and the like). Now, I'm thrilled that groceries have moved to having public restrooms more available--I can remember when I was young and we had to wend our way through stockrooms and employee lounges to a secret location in order to use the restroom. Still, it seems as though some effort could be put into making these places nice. My local grocery just underwent a massive facelift a year or so ago--everything was refurbished, cleaned up, rearranged...everything except the restrooms. They remain old, basic, and a little rickety.
And it's the same with restaurants. Often, it seems as though restrooms are wedged into any little space that is left over, and then never looked at again. The rest of the place may look spectacular: clean, bright, decorated with great taste and apparent expense. And then one trips off to the ladies' room and discovers crooked tile, bare walls, slapped-on paint, a soap dispenser that doesn't dispense, and an air freshener scent more pungent than Limburger. My guess is that such places gamble that many patrons won't see the restroom, so it's not a big deal if the few who do are unimpressed.
It makes me wonder, though, what the "necessaries" are in my heart, if you will. What are the hidden rooms that I don't pay much attention to because no one ever sees them? What are the places that are run-down and seedy in my life? What are the areas that I know I need to clean up, but I don't feel much pressure because, well, no one sees them. I don't have to worry about it.
Think about it this way: there's lots of pressure to conform to standards of, say, weight. Our society obligingly pressures us to lose weight, to eat healthy, to take those pounds off (albeit this advice is often in the same magazines that then feature a recipe for making a cake out of doughnuts and ice cream). And one's body is really obvious: everyone can see its general outline. People judge and we know they judge.
Likewise, there are some sinful ways that are evident and obvious. Theft. Lying. Adultery. Oh, they may stay hidden for a while, but they will out. But what about all those hidden sins? What about pride? Haughtiness? Judgmentalism? Favoritism? Insincerity? Oh, they're so much harder to weed out. Because just like a restaurant restroom, those things are often sins of my own heart, more or less indetectible to the outside eye. But they're wrong no less than the obvious ones are wrong.
To be sincere, what's in my most hidden rooms should match what's in the public ones.
One place where the bathroom remains more of a "necessary" is in public places. I have to confess that, over the past few years, I have begun to judge places by their public bathrooms. Now, if I go into a gas station, I expect pretty basic amenities, and I'm pretty happy if they're moderately clean and everything is in working order. My expectations of what a gas station restroom should be are usually met.
However, I find that more often than not, restrooms are an afterthought in even nicer eating establishments and public spaces (grocery stores and the like). Now, I'm thrilled that groceries have moved to having public restrooms more available--I can remember when I was young and we had to wend our way through stockrooms and employee lounges to a secret location in order to use the restroom. Still, it seems as though some effort could be put into making these places nice. My local grocery just underwent a massive facelift a year or so ago--everything was refurbished, cleaned up, rearranged...everything except the restrooms. They remain old, basic, and a little rickety.
And it's the same with restaurants. Often, it seems as though restrooms are wedged into any little space that is left over, and then never looked at again. The rest of the place may look spectacular: clean, bright, decorated with great taste and apparent expense. And then one trips off to the ladies' room and discovers crooked tile, bare walls, slapped-on paint, a soap dispenser that doesn't dispense, and an air freshener scent more pungent than Limburger. My guess is that such places gamble that many patrons won't see the restroom, so it's not a big deal if the few who do are unimpressed.
It makes me wonder, though, what the "necessaries" are in my heart, if you will. What are the hidden rooms that I don't pay much attention to because no one ever sees them? What are the places that are run-down and seedy in my life? What are the areas that I know I need to clean up, but I don't feel much pressure because, well, no one sees them. I don't have to worry about it.
Think about it this way: there's lots of pressure to conform to standards of, say, weight. Our society obligingly pressures us to lose weight, to eat healthy, to take those pounds off (albeit this advice is often in the same magazines that then feature a recipe for making a cake out of doughnuts and ice cream). And one's body is really obvious: everyone can see its general outline. People judge and we know they judge.
Likewise, there are some sinful ways that are evident and obvious. Theft. Lying. Adultery. Oh, they may stay hidden for a while, but they will out. But what about all those hidden sins? What about pride? Haughtiness? Judgmentalism? Favoritism? Insincerity? Oh, they're so much harder to weed out. Because just like a restaurant restroom, those things are often sins of my own heart, more or less indetectible to the outside eye. But they're wrong no less than the obvious ones are wrong.
To be sincere, what's in my most hidden rooms should match what's in the public ones.
