Despite a shady gimmick to catch your attention, my title does hold some relevance to my life. In fact, on a typical sunny day in July, I woke up and went into the bathroom expecting to see things as I typically did: a clean and kept bathroom filled with miniature travel soaps and shampoos resting in expected places. Instead, I found a disheveled disarray of confusion. Bottles that once stood tall and proud on the shower walls had now fallen into a pile of hodgepodge hygienics on the tub floor. I washed my hands in the sink and looked left for my towel. I shook the water off my hands as I wondered why both of my towels had disappeared from their respective holders. I decided to further observe the current condition of the bathroom. As I did so, I looked to the floor. On a few of the ceramic tiles I encountered blotches of dried blood that trailed into my neighbor's room. While observing my surroundings, I heard a rustling behind the door to the other room. I blindly asked if anyone was in there. Upon hearing a confirmation I asked what had happened. - Before I explain what was told to me I want to take you back to my experience the night before.
-About midnight I was going to bed when I heard someone in my bathroom sounding upset and hurried. Clunks and bangs from falling plastic interrupted the incessant mumbling. Soon, the faucet began to run as a voice kept saying: "Some people are such idiots." I tried to tune out the voice but it was soon followed by another voice. The voice was of the opposite gender and was questioning "WHY are people such idiots" and "WHAT had happened." I started to feel like I was eavesdropping, so it was at this point I jammed my Mp3 earbuds into my ears in an attempt to drown out the conversation. In the bathroom I heard the water running full-blast, falling into the tub while the voices continued loudly. I tried to shut my mind off but there was an initial urge to understand what could possibly be happening. I soon decided I did not care and hoped that the noise would soon pass. It did not. I laid in my bed for several minutes. Through a filter of music, the voices and noises passed my headphones and into my ears, preventing me from my escape to slumber. Although the noises and voices never did stop, the fatigue from being up at 4 am hit me like a baseball bat across the face and I was able to pass into the blessing of sleep.-
Apparently, after I had gone to sleep, whoever had been in the bathroom had gotten physically hurt by someone else's stupidity. Somehow, that lead to other things and the person eventually ended up "having a good time" in the tub with the other person I had heard.
The description I received from my neighbor was the definition of vague; he was letting my mind fill in the gaps of what actually happened. As I figured it out, I made a quip about the soaps becoming dirty from the events. I laughed in solitude. I guess my neighbor didn't find the joke funny. However, he assured me that the mess would be cleaned up.
Today, as I scrubbed the bathtub I was reminded of these past events. The red cleaner I sprayed on the bathtub walls washed down towards the drain and tore away soap scum in its path. A clean tub now sits in my bathroom, rinsed anew of vile and filthy things. I am reminded of my life and all the things that have been washed away for me by someone else.
As we become situated in our lives, we often go blind to the disgustingness of our thoughts and actions, and, like a mirror, it takes seeing it in someone else to see it in ourselves. Thankfully, even if my title is slightly melodramatic, this was an opportunity for me to recognize how we are all in need of a cleansing.
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