#30

Over dinner, someone affirmed that at bars in New York City, the gender demarcations in restrooms have fallen by the wayside, as population crush forces women into the men's room, where there is less likely to be a line thanks to the efficiency of pissing at a urinal. I said that it really only saves you perhaps fifteen seconds at the outside in a pinch, and that surely other considerations are at play. This was challenged at length, and I was (some might say, rudely) interrogated about my bathroom habits. I maintained my dignified bearing and answered truthfully that it is generally more polite and comfortable to urinate seated and that as such it is typically my habit, and that if I must needs urinate standing and am not outside, I still wait for a toilet. At a urinal, you stand in a cloud of microscopic backsplash at best, and risk actual spattering in a moment of carelessness, distraction, or as a result of a twitch or spasm. The bowl is further from you, better designed to spread the stream in every direction but back at you, and is equipped with an overhanging lip. To no avail! Urinals took the day, around that dinner table.

Also over dinner, someone stated that in witnessing a mother give suck from her breast in public to her seven-year old son, the witness has no case for judgment. I am not a judgmental person, according to personality tests, anecdotal evidence, and the testimony of peers and acquaintances, but I do not mind telling you that I disagreed immediately and in no uncertain terms. It is not the giving suck that is objectionable, nor the public nature of the act as described, nor is my concern nutritional. I am simply stating facts when I say that no hale and healthy seven-year old child with a balanced and robust relationship with their mother would feel the need to take her breast into their mouth at that age, nor would a mother with a balanced outlook on life, the world, and her own relationship with her offspring and where that ends and begins would feel the need to offer her breast to such a child, understanding that this would lead to potentially irreparable confusions. As such, while I don't advocate ripping the kid off the nipple and clapping the pair in chains, I shall not condone such deeds, nor place them within optimal relational parameters. I feel that this is simply plain good sense, but in this also, I was heartily disagreed with all around. 

Well, I can only think more on these matters, and try to grow as I may. I allow that my opinions are not always sound, and do endeavor not to fall into closed-mindedness. 

By the by, I found dinner excellent. Fried battered cod, pommes frites, and part of someone else's fancy grilled cheese sandwich, finished with a cup of decaffeinated coffee.


--JL