BlogBlast4Peace #80 Peeing on the Linoleum

Reason #79
Peeing on the Linoleum

Lola and I went to her sister's place for a barbeque earlier today. Laughs, stories, and good food was shared by all. My niece, Tina, was also at the there, but her boyfriend, Pepper, couldn't make it. From what I gather he was also in a little hot water with Tina over earlier events of the day. Tina told Lola the story of why he was in hot water with her and when Tina finished her story she said, "He peed on the linoleum again." Of course, I giggled at this and Tina laughed at me. Tina explained to me that she uses that phrase whenever Pepper has erred. I had to asked how she came up with the phrase, for I haven't heard her use it before. So Tina explained that when they first started living together Pepper got up a little earlier than Tina and went into the kitchen. He was thirsty and noticed that they had run out of iced tea so he made some. He made it like a male would, he grabbed the iced tea crystals, poured in cold water into the jug, placed his hand over the top of the jug and shook vigorously. To his credit, he did shake the jug over the kitchen sink.

A little while later Tina got up and went into the kitchen and was also thirsty, so she went to the refrigerator first. She noticed the newly made iced tea and thanked Pepper for being so thoughtful to make some fresh, Jug in hand, Tina walked toward the kitchen cabinet to grab a glass, but noticed something peculiar and said to Pepper, "Why is the floor sticky?' Before he could answer Tina looked down at the floor and noticed a myriad of nearly dried iced tea droplets on the floor. She pressed further, "How exactly did you make the iced tea?"

Pepper told her step by step how he made the iced tea. Tina immediately schooled him in the proper steps to take and the proper instruments to use, namely. a long wooden spoon to mix the ingredients thoroughly.

Time passed. Then one day Pepper again got up earlier than Tina, and again there was no iced tea, so he made some.

When Tina got up, she was also thirsty and went and got some fresh iced tea, She went to grab a glass and noticed that there was no sticky floor this time and smiled to herself that the schooling must have worked. Nothing more was thought about it. Pepper left for work, and Tina decided she should also get ready and went to bathroom to have a shower. She pulled the curtain back and noticed that the walls and tub were covered with droplets of iced tea everywhere. Pepper still made the iced tea the man way, but thought that if he shook it over the bath tub, there would be no sticky drops on the floor. Tina was a little irked by this, but she also had to laugh. She thought to herself, "Teaching Pepper something is like paper training a little puppy. After time a puppy will get used to the idea of the paper, but will stand there with two front paws on the paper and still pee on the linoleum. You can't get mad at them, but you still have to correct them."

To this day, when Pepper does screw up even though there was an effort to improve from the previous similar situation, Tina calls it Peeing on the Linoleum.

 

Tina's Peeing on the Linoleum story got me thinking about the state of things, our governments, and the general unrest in the world. Has our governments gone about things the right way? Public opinion of everything that has happened in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and now Libya (just to name a few) has really dropped. Public opinion of NATO, a force that was designed not to fight, but keep peace where there is unrest, has waned. There's even mixed feelings about how Saddam and Bin Laden were finally dealt with. I'm not saying that these tyrants and despots didn't need to be ousted, I'm really asking if the approach our governments took was the right way to go about it, or have we become the puppies that miss the paper? Doing what is right the wrong way. Maybe it is through efforts like BlogBlast4Peace that we can teach each other, and learn from each other. Maybe all these thoughts and efforts from bloggers can reach our governments so they can stop Peeing on the Linoleum.