Cell phones, tablets, laptops–technology has forcibly pulled people away from each other, creating this gap that has made it impossible for us to truly unite as fellow human beings even in this much celebrated “social media” age. Fortunately, I have been lucky to discover a way to feel myself one with mankind, and I stumbled upon it in the least likely place you’d expect to find such deep realization–in the men’s bathroom.
One of those normal, busy days in the office, I stood up from my chair feeling a little rumble in my belly. I promptly walked away from my desk, leaving all my mundane tasks behind–all these unnecessary things and activities that have made me, us, slaves of an unrelenting system that drains our lives’ true worth. I left all of them as my buttocks began to feel like it’s going to explode.
I rushed past the toiling drones, their faces sucked into their computers and their expressionless eyes showing the depressing truth of their hollow souls. Step by step I closed in on the men’s bathroom where the turbulence in my tummy sought immediate refuge and release. My hand clasped the cold door knob… and I was in.
Pushing the cubicle doors one by one as gently as possible so as not to betray the fact that I was on the brink of an uncontrollable posterior convulsion, I checked if they were occupied. Alas! Those wretched things were filled with fellow bum bazooka warriors firing brown shells into the water. And I was overcome with the depressing burden of existence.
But suddenly… a door opened! And out came our old IT guy who had just done the dirty deed!
Even before he was fully out of the cubicle, I leapt inside like a nimble lemur in the forests of Madagascar. And then it hit me like a ten ton truck–the smell of his newly flushed shit stacks.
The air was still warm with that man’s sweat and body heat when I shut the door. As my fingers fumbled for my belt buckle and my pants dropped to the floor, I realized I have never been as close to anyone as I was when I took a lungful of that old man’s intestinal contents. It smelled like stale bread and rotting vegetables. In fact, while pooping in the noisiest way possible, it came to me that that man in that very moment wasn’t only our IT guy. He was not just that incredibly incompetent fool who always told me to restart my computer whenever it wouldn’t do as it’s supposed to do. And then suggested reformatting it as a second option. He was much more… much more. A symbol. A representative of mankind. Humanity itself.
I pressed the bidet happily to wash my crack. He and I, and lots of other men in the office pressed the same thing that day… and the thought made me smile.
Whaaat?! This is brilliant, and you don’t speak like any Filipino I’ve met in the Philippines. I’m mesmerized. π
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Thank you! You’ve been to the Philippines! It’s a lovely country underneath all that ugliness. Yeah, I can get really weird especially when it’s so humid like tonight. Glad you enjoyed this one. π
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I was born there, and my family left for America when I was 4. You write really well and your humor is off the wall! I like that. π
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I see. That’s why you have a soft spot for guys like me. Thank you! I checked out your blog; you write really well, too. π
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Best laugh I’ve had all day!
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Thank you Kate!
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i like so much your blog! amazing!
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Thanks for reading!
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