Did you know that when men stand up to urinate that this “sends a fine spray around the room (as does every toilet flushed without the lid closed).  Spray becomes vapor,which leaves a chemical deposit on anything surrounding the urinal.  It can also change the color of wallpaper”?  This interesting bit of bathroom trivia comes from a book by Rose George, entitled The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why it Matters.  (Reviewed by Dwight Garner, NY Times, 12/12/08)

Incidentally, German men are heavily into the sitting-down approach.  And this doesn’t mean you are a girly-man, Gov. Schwarchenegger.  Having raised two boys, I would say that sitting down is just polite and expedient.

The whole arena of human waste is a subject more delicate than sexuality (our own) or even money (our own), surely two of the biggest taboos in our culture.  Why do we end up saying such ridiculous things as, “The dog went to the bathroom in the living room”?  We don’t have the language, for one thing, to talk comfortably about these necessary functions.  “Defecate” sounds awfully clinical and s___–well, I’m even loathe to write the word in a blog that will end up on the church web site.  Maybe the language has never evolved because–well, we just don’t want to go there.  And yet as George, a British journalist, points out, the average human being spends three years of life going to the toilet.

George’s book has its lighter side (well, the topic begs for humor), but when George becomes serious, she makes us think profoundly about this universal function.  “Four in 10 people have no access to any latrine, toilet, bucket, or box.  Nothing.  Instead, they defecate by train tracks and in forests.  They do it in plastic bags and fling them through the air in narrow slum alleyways.”  Just pause for a moment and meditate upon this simple fact–4 out of 10.  That’s pretty close to half the planet, isn’t it?  It makes one consider how fortunate we are every time we thoughtlessly flush the toilet and go on about our business.

Naturally, there are consequences for not disposing of human waste properly.  George points out that children suffer the most–they die from diarrhea, 90 percent of which is caused by fecal contamination.  She quotes from a sanitation expert, “Cholera and typhoid kill so many kids a year” that it “amounts to two jumbo jets full of children crashing every four hours.”  We think of the outbreak in Zimbabwe.  And cholera is not an easy way to die. 

Something else we may not be so savvy about–George tells us that many sophisticated cultures don’t do much better than slum cities in disposing of human waste.  Many coastal cities–she cites Vancouver and Brighton–simply throw it into the ocean.  When this happens, she says, untreated sewage moves into sources of drinking water.

I note that they’ve done a re-make of the apocalyptic film “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” a film whose obvious message is that as a species we humans are too stupid and violent to survive.  What will Klaatu, or some other visitor from outer space, say when he finds our planet in ruin and the people desperate?  He will shake his head in wonder and dismay and think, “Who are these people who didn’t know better than to foul their own nest?”

On the front page of the NY Times today is a picture of three S.U.V’s–great white behemoths–sitting on the altar of Greater Grace Temple, a Pentecostal church in Detroit. Worshipers–including hundreds who work in the automobile industry–are surrounding the vehicles, some with upraised hands in supplication, asking for the miracle that it would take to save their companies.  Officials from the United Automobile Workers union were invited to speak at the service, followed by a sermon by Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, entitled “A Hybrid Hope.”  (The S.U.V.’s were all gas-electric hybrids on loan from various dealerships.)

Well, I guess that’s the way we usually run our lives–we screw up, and then we beg God to DO SOMETHING and bail us out.  Really, God, I’ll never hit my little brother again, I promise!  When do we grow up and begin to take some responsibility for the consequences of our actions? 

Let’s talk about General Motors, the biggest baddest auto company.  G.M.’s chief executive, Rick Wagoner, earlier chastened and turned away by Congress, upon his return testified   that “G.M. has made mistakes in the past.”  Wagoner named three of those mistakes: agreeing to expensive union contracts, not investing in smaller cars, and failing to convert plants so the company could build more than one kind of vehicle.

But G.M.’s biggest failing, according to some analysts, is the company’s refusal to invest in innovation and to support those inside the company who were pushing the company to innovate.  Instead, they allowed the finance executives to carry the day, the guys in the company who were more interested in short-term returns on investment than in making products appropriate for the 21st century.  Their excuse?  “We were giving the public what they wanted.”  Well, yes, by pushing hugely expensive ads and lobbying Congress to set fuel standards criminally low.  And the result of taking this direction?  Inflated stock values for investors and fat checks for executives.  Oh, and yes, now bankruptcy.

Let’s talk about leadership, shall we?  When a person leads a business or an institution of any kind, that individual should consider his position as a sacred trust.  People will be depending upon that leader for their livelihood, and the company itself must remain not only viable but trustworthy, in the eyes of the public.  It is a public trust of sorts.  Of course a company must make a good profit in order to flourish, but the core mission of the company should never be solely to make a profit.  The core mission should include creating the best possible product for the most number of people at the lowest cost to them and to the environment, while ensuring that the line workers are respected and compensated apporopriately. 

The problem with G.M is a values problem, not a business mistake. Their executives went after the money, disregarding environmental issues and the quality of their product.  A business mistake can be rectified–but a values problem?  That will be more difficult to deal with.  I would suggest that a good beginning might be for Congress to insist that the current executives be relieved of their positions.  These are the leaders who made the decisions that fattened their own wallets and ran the company into the ground.  The leopard has shown its spots.  Should we now trust them with billions more?

It was predictable–conservative Episcopalians have decided to
just by golly go off and sulk and have their own church.

I don’t know anyone who is not fearful about this nation’s economic plight these days.  Since pension plans have mostly gone by the board, workers have invested their money in the stock market, thinking that they would retire, and they now wonder if and when they will.  Those who are working wonder if their jobs will hold.  Retailers and small businesses of all kinds face lean times, and many of them will close.  Those who provide services of various kinds, from massage to house cleaning to car washes, will find that their customers cannot afford to come so often, or perhaps not at all.  Restaurants will see empty tables more often.  Recreational facilities, from state parks to ski resorts, will experience fewer visitors. 

Yes, everyone is worried.  But there are some among us who will be receiving the brunt of this economic crash, and they would be the 20% or so at the bottom of the economic scale–the ones who were working part-time because they could not find full-time jobs, and now the part-time job has been cut; the ones who are among the 30% of young people who drop out of high school; the workers who live so far out that they can’t commute to their low-paying jobs in the city; the families who were depending upon help from another family member who is now unable to provide it; the families who were healthy previously but could not afford health insurance and now have had a major illness or accident.  These folks will be wondering how they will pay the rent and buy food, knowing that they can do one, but not the other.

So how to be thankful?  Well, I would say that those of us who don’t have to worry about losing our home or where our next meal is coming from or how we’re going to pay the electric bill, I would say we have a lot to be thankful for, right there.  If our basic needs are met, let us then understand that all the rest is really icing on the cake.

My family and I have decided not to give one another Christmas gifts this year, and to instead give that money where it might be better used.  Personally, I’m giving my gift money to the Food Bank, because I know that that agency is desperate to meet the increasing demand, and I am distressed that families, including young children, might be hungry–at any time, but especially during the holiday season.  Our Alternative Gift Mart at the church also suggests many other worthy alternatives. 

I’m afraid greed has won the day, and the house of cards that has become our economic system is falling to the ground.  With the wise leadership of our new President, I believe we will begin to build an economy that is responsive to all the people, not just the 1% at the top. But this building of a new economic system will take time and patience.  Many will suffer, both in our country and in the rest of the world.  Let us be mindful of those on the fringes, who will suffer the most.  Let us understand that Love asks us to share the bounty of our lives, such as it is. 

One of the most difficult of all human tasks, emotionally and
spiritually, is forgiving those who have harmed us.