Dirty Londoners Don't Flush?

A good little 'dirt' story bobbed up yesterday. London Mayor Ken Livingstone - for those unfamiliar, not one to mince his words or ideas - has encouraged Londoners not to flush the loo when they take a pee/wizz/spend a penny etc. The idea is to save water... It may be freezing here at the moment, but it's very very dry, and we are heading for a summer drought unless we get rain soon.

Of course, this is classic dirt territory. We actually decided to adopt a 'not when you've pee-d' flushing policy in our house some time ago as an environmental measure. But it was met with cries of "filthy" by some. "Disgusting" by others. Particularly as we also have no asthma-enducing chemical horrors air fresheners either. And where do you draw the line? Do you not flush in other people's houses too? At work?

There is, of course, nothing unhygienic about it, but it rattles our dirt boundaries. And is thus an interesting place. As Hyde notes in 'Trickster Makes This World':

"As with keeping shame's appropriate silences, honoring the distinction between the clean and the dirty helps make the world an orderly place, while dishonoring that distinction - defecating in the wrong place or mixing lobsters with fish - threatens the design, the cosmos."

And not allowing such threats - by insisting one flushes unnecessarily after a pee - is a small step to becoming "a Christian Church blocked by its own purity."

Go Ken. (but don't flush)

Technorati Tags: Dirt, Emerging Church, London

Comments

[Phil]

if it's yellow let it mellow
if it's brown flush it down

(Dustin Hoffman in "Meet the Fockers")

sorry, couldn't resist it

[gareth]

umm not sure about that...

why not be really ecological and shit in your garden, or if, like me, you live in a hi-rise, shit in a park, preferably near some plants.

It will do the plants the world of good, giving them and the soil much needed nutrients.

We could even make some small garden forks called 'shit stirrers' that people could use to mix their own into the soil :-)

[saga]

ive long thought that yellow in the pan is fine, just not on the seat.
mental note made that its ok not to flush at yours, as well as mine.

[Mike R]

Actually if it's yellow, you're dehydrated.

Drink more water.

[Phil]

if you wee in the sink you don't have to use much water to 'flush' afterwards. Tip: I always remove the washing-up bowl first ;o)