The Case of the Stopped up Toilet or... Know When to Say No!

01/25/2022

It was just another day in the life of a janitor.  The walkie talkie on my belt squawked to life interrupting my mid afternoon rendezvous with the cafeteria floor.  "MISTER DEREK?", the voice from the other side said in a somewhat jovial tone.  This always gave me a moment of pause because I knew, instinctively, that it meant I was needed in a part of the building I didn't want to go to because I had to do something I, surely, didn't want to do.  There was no doubt in my mind that the  jolly voice was about to direct me on a PVB mission.  It's a mission that brings joy to secretaries (at least mine), and sheer dread to some teachers (at least mine)!  A PVB mission can mean only one of three things:  Poop, Vomit, or Blood.  None of these three expulsions are a welcomed guest in the daily life of  a janitor, expected, yes, welcomed, no.  And in the moment it took my secretary to respond back from my radio acknowledgement a thought popped into my head.  I'm not proud of the thought but I think any janitor would agree they have had the same thought.  Having a deep sense that this was, indeed, going to be a PVB mission I whispered, softly and ,I pray, inaudibly, under my breath, "God, I hope it's blood." No luck was to be found that day for me, however.  "A toilet in the boys bathroom is overflowing", the voice said through the static of the radio. "Of course it is", I responded.  So with a saddened heart and a twinge of trepidation I said goodbye to the cafeteria floor, gathered my mop, bucket, plunger, and toilet snake and made my way towards the unspeakable horror that awaited me.

Overflowing toilets are a staple in an elementary school.  Small children are known for their voracious fiber intake, or at least that's what I blamed this odd toilet belching phenomenon on. Usually, the process of remedying the problem was simple and straight forward , much like a toilet clearing flow chart if you will.  Plunge it, flush it---no flush, repeat---no flush, snake it, flush it.  If, by then, there was still no relief to the blockage you had to deep snake it.  Sadly, I have to report, that this particular mission was a deep snake.  So, I set myself to the task.  Crank, crank, crank!  The snake drilled its way further and further into the bowels of the school (no pun intended).  Just as I was about to reach the end of my snake I felt something catch.  "Gotcha!", I exclaimed as a victorious echo resonated throughout the bathroom.  The retracting of the snake is always the fun part of this type of mission, if there is a fun part.  Primarily due to the fact that the anticipation of what might be on the end of that snake is almost unbearable as it makes it way towards the surface and the light of day.  I've seen many things come out of the toilets of my elementary school.  Shoes, combs, even homework assignments.  Item after item sent down the plumbing hoping to never be seen again . As if it were being sent to Davey Jones' locker or Harry Potter's room of requirement.  This time the culprit was a pair of underwear...that's right, underwear.  Come up with your own story of how this pair of beefy Hanes got stuck in the pipes.  Anything the mind could imagine could be way off base or right on point.  Nevertheless, mission accomplished.

 I share this story because I believe it illustrates, perhaps in an odd way, something that all of us, especially teachers, are guilty of...shoving a bunch of stuff in a place it doesn't fit. Or, to put it another way, not being able to say no! Teachers do it, volunteers do it, pastors do it, heck, we all do it.  At some point, in most people's lives, we fall into a habit of taking on more than we can handle.  Maybe it's because we don't want others to be angry with us.  Maybe, it's because we, truly, want to help.  Maybe it's because we want to be included in everything.  What do they call it now?  FOMO?  The fear of missing out? Yeah, maybe that's it.  But, for what ever reason we do it, one thing is true.  It's not good for us.  Saying yes to too many things causes a backlog in our schedule, a backup in our emotional capital, and a burnout  of our energy supplies.  Saying "yes" to everything becomes the underwear in our plumbing.  It causes chaos in our lives and, quite frankly, makes crap go everywhere.  It's a mess made by our own doing.

I want to encourage you to practice some "no's" in the upcoming week.   Don't flatly refuse every request, rather, measure each response with this question, "Is this request going to overflow my toilet?"  It's crass, sure, but it's an appropriate question.  What things in your life are causing your toilet to overflow?  What commitments have you made that need to be "snaked out" in order for you to regain an even flow in your life?  "No" doesn't mean you don't like me, it just means you like you better.  "No" doesn't mean you get left out, it means you to get to be a part of the things that you enjoy the most.  I'll tell you what, if you have trouble saying the word "no", the next time someone asks something of you that you are sure is going to overload your system you just say, "I'm sorry, I just can't put another pair of underwear in my toilet." That should do the trick.

Until next time!

Derek



The What If? Project
All rights reserved 2023
Powered by Webnode
Create your website for free! This website was made with Webnode. Create your own for free today! Get started