Great Expectations

We had a new bathroom fitted a few weeks ago. It’s a great improvement but there are a few unexpected features that are causing a little bit of consternation. The new shower provides a much better showering experience than our creaky old one (it’s one of those rainfall showers with the overhead sculpture attachment that I tried once but didn’t really take to). It gets up to a decent heat and has good pressure. It does, however, usually take over ten minutes to turn on, which I’m sure isn’t quite working as intended. The sink is sleek and shiny and at a much better height for our three year old but randomly wafts out a strange sewer-like fragrance that slowly drifts around the house. It also has a habit of propelling water like a jet hose, which bounces from the sleek and shiny basin at crotch-height, leading to much pointing and laughing from the afore-mentioned three year old. And the toilet? Well let’s just say that the bowl, whilst nice and compact, does appear to need a tad more cleaning than the average design. Yes, the new bathroom is a blessing but also has a few wrinkles that will need ironing out, which leads me nicely onto the whole subject of expectations. Here in the West, when we pay good money for something we expect it to work and work well. We don’t take too kindly to disappointment. We can also have a tendency to moan when things don’t quite go as intended and might even complain and demand reparation if we’re less than satisfied. Well, it’s our right isn’t it? Our right as a consumer. But then I got to thinking, what if I take in a deep breath and step back a little? What if, instead of staring at Johnny down the road with his beautiful, pong-free, perfectly functioning bathroom, I shift my gaze to our planet as a whole and consider the lives of my brothers and sisters further afield? Well, if I did that I might suddenly be faced with situations that lead me to see things from a slightly different perspective. I mean, there are millions of people out there who don’t even have bathrooms, or hot running water, or clean water they can drink without getting sick. They don’t have the luxury of complaining about having to wait for their shower to start because they don’t have a shower at all. Maybe, when I look at them, I might realise that my everyday expectations are misguided and I might start making some choices that might start to make a positive change. Maybe. So, here I am, stuck in a quandary. I really do want the smell to go away but on a more human level I’m thankful that it’s there; if only for the reminder that for many, many, many people on our beautiful and tragic planet a little waft of sewage is the least of their problems.

Expectations are funny things I think. They’re good things to have but they’re not always great...