Consistency

Consistency is a difficult commodity to come by these days.  Our minds are bombarded with  different messages from the TV, podcasts, magazines, books, Nooks, Kindles and iPads.  Almost everyone has some kind of opinion on how to live life.  There are so many articles now about fall decorating and the trends both in furnishing a home and furnishing a wardrobe.  Are military jackets in again this winter?  Is gray still the rage in wall treatments?  When did we trade in perfectly good words like material, drapes, floor, accent furniture and such to describe what's happening in the decorating scene, which the career formally known as decorator is now being re purposed with the title of designer.  When I was right out of college I went to a church where the pastor  referred to sidewalks and parking lots as artificial Terra ferma.  If he were still alive, he would fit in the vernacular of today's culture.  Sunday School has had yet another name change.  Within the last week our church's location is now referred to as The Loop location because we now have a downtown location...which is all fine and good, love that we are going back into the city, but the branding changes and the hope of those running the show is for us, the congregation, to pick up on the lingo and mimic what we hear without really giving it another thought.  Classic marketing, it works every time.  So glad we have some of the best in the church world working at our church.  But it is going to take some time for everyone to refer to our church as the church at the loop, CATL or if 'the' isn't used, CAL. 

Wait, I didn't even intend to go into that subject.  I was writing about consistency.  And really, I was attempting to give a global view to the subject matter but in reality I'm really writing about consistency in bathroom fixtures.  In the post modern world we can find every kind of plumbing from the basic flush it yourself, turn on the water, pump some soap, get a paper towel from the familiar dispenser or use the air hand dryer of the 20th century to the 21st century version of human identification to get the necessary products for clean hands.  Toilet height is all over the place, even in the handicap bathrooms.  Last night at a very popular restaurant I found myself in the stall looking down, way down to the shortest toilet I have ever seen.  It should have belonged in a preschool area.  I will save you from any descriptive of this 6' woman with really, really bad knees trying to maneuver into some kind of position to take advantage of the opportunity.  I would have been better served just to use one of those troth like things they have in the bathrooms in the middle east.  There is no consistency on whether the thing is going to flush itself or if we have to do it the old fashioned way.  If a bathroom has one of those it will take care of things itself...why don't they make the whole system consistent with that theme and install faucets and soap dispensers that do the same thing.  Don't even get me started on the paper towel dispensers....do you just put your hand over a light?  Do you push a button to make the paper move?  Do you pull on a towel and the machine does the rest, do you turn a crank?  I cannot tell you how many times I have stood in front of a sink trying to get the water to run by passing my hands over the sensor just to find out you push that thing for water...  Same thing for soap, sometimes you put your hand under the spout and here comes the soap, sometimes you have to pump it and many times the soap dispensers are empty.  That gives me a wonderful feeling in eating establishments. 

No place is immune, schools, movie theatres,and malls. Even the bathrooms at church are all over the place.  Downstairs neccitariums have been updated with all the "everything takes care of itself" plumbing.  Second floor, you're in a time machine and you are transported back to the vintage sinks, toilets, and soap dispensers of the 70's.  Except now, the hot water has been turned off and there is only cold water to wash your hands.  Again, that wonderful feeling of cleanliness washes all over me.  I do miss the little stickers that used to be affixed to the second roll of toilet paper in the stalls.  It said, "Conserve tithe dollars, use other roll first."  I have yet to understand the logic of those instructions. 

None of this is of any informational value whatsoever.  It is just me venting about the state of our bathrooms, public bathrooms.  Some are frustrated by all the changes coming with Facebook.  Doesn't bother me, I will adjust or use Twitter more often.  I would like some unity of plumbing fixtures that's all.  Isn't that's what is all about at church especially?  Consistency in our daily walk with the Lord and when we need to take a respite break, couldn't the fixtures be unified as well?  Yep, the church at the loop; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 28 different styles of carpet throughout the building.