Mark Twain once claimed, “One of the most overrated things is sex and the most underrated things is managing to relieve yourself.” And how right he was!
One of the most challenging feats a person faces in their lives is when, where and how he can relieve himself. Although the homeless and prisoners are more disadvantaged in this case, the problem is one everyone faces. At times there is no guarantee you might face a scenario when you desperately need to respond to a call of nature and there is no readily accessible toilet available. Perhaps you have eaten something terrible, or you are nervous before a performance or exam. At times you have to sprint to a toilet. If not, you might have to try to relieve yourself under a tree, a bush or in a conveniently secluded spot.
But what if there is none? And what if people happen to see you urinating?
In many cities it is illegal! You could even be charged for 'indecent exposure' which is just plain absurd. So performing an act of simple hygiene can turn into a feat! Urination is not the only difficult area. You would think that something as natural and normal as defecation would be the most acknowledged and acceptable thing! But it is not! This should not surprise us. If women are felt to be ashamed of menstruation then why should society be more open-minded when it comes to relating to defecation?
Even the word is often associated with euphemisms. Instead of using straightforward words, you hear phrases such as 'relieve yourself', 'answering the call of nature' and 'doing the toilet.' The word defecation might as well be an unmentionable swear word. At times you feel like defecation is almost a crime. In fact, defecating is a crime in some spots. So of course people feel awkward and embarrassed at even asking for permission to go to the toilet.
I can hardly forget the situation where I was teaching English at a kindergarten in Moscow and noticed a four year boy just pull down his trousers in front of me to defecate. I was a bit shocked. I had to take him to a member of staff so they could guide him to the toilet. I told him that he should not be scared to ask for help from the staff for aid of any kind. For whatever reason my impression was that he was embarrassed to ask for the use of the toilet.
I think the writer D.H. Lawrence grasped the absurdity of how so many people are ashamed of their bodily functions...
Lawrence not only mentioned the issue of how we relate to sex but also defecation. Lawrence wrote, “The mind has an old grovelling fear of the body and the body's potencies. .....The mind's terror of the body has probably driven more men mad than ever could be counted.” The insanity of a great mind, like Swift's is at least partly traceable to this cause. In the poem to his mistress Celia, which has the maddened refrain: "But - Celia, Celia, Celia sh*ts!" we can see what can happen to a great mind, when it falls into panic. A great wit like Swift could not see how ridiculous he made himself. Of course Celia sh*ts! Who doesn't? And how much worse if she didn't. It is hopeless. And then think of poor Celia, made to feel iniquitous about her proper natural function, by her "lover." It is monstrous. And it comes from having taboo words, and from not keeping the mind sufficiently developed in physical and sexual consciousness {page 309, A Propos of "Lady Chatterley's Lover," 1994, London: Penguin Books}.
The way some local governments have gone about dismantling portable toilets meant to cater for the homeless at encampments seems to suggest some people are still made to feel guilty about natural functions. You would think that a homeless person relieving himself in a proper toilet might be applauded as hygienic! After all, he or she is not leaving excrement on the sidewalk.
Instead you hear of the Mayor of San Francisco forcibly removing portable toilets for the homeless in a war to remove homeless tents. Someone apparently has a phobia against tents and toilets for some reason. For peculiar reasons some people can't grasp the fact that even the homeless have the need to relieve themselves and they prefer to use toilets. Toilets are not a magnet for tents. As if the homeless pitch their tents mainly because of the construction of new toilets. The homeless use tents because they rightly seek to avoid homeless shelters which deprive them of their basic freedom, dignity, privacy as well as safety.
When you hear of situations when on Skid Row nearly 2000 homeless people share just 9 toilets in 2017, then you quickly grasp that the construction of portable toilets is a necessity. It is urgent. Now if you remove those toilets then the quantity of feces can increase rapidly.
An official called Haney from San Francisco argued that toilets serve the community beyond the homeless. The more toilets you have, the cleaner the streets. This is axiomatic! Haney would like a situation where there was a ratio of one toilet to 50 people at a minimum. He stated, "How about the visibility of people defecating in the streets and pooping all over the sidewalks and the inhumanity of it all? It is beneath a city as wealthy as ours to make people go into the trees."
The fact is that safe and secure toilets protect people. Doing the toilet in the wrong places can be lethal. I recall the storyteller Daniel Ogen telling me how he was sailing in a fishing boat off Alaska under Captain Tom. When Captain Tom noticed him urinating over the side he warned "All it takes is one huge wave to knock you overboard and you'll fall in and drown. That happens. It is up to you but I strongly advise you against this." Nature never forgives you for making a mistake. It can be very cruel.
Access to doing the toilet is a basic human right…
Everyone is entitled to the dignity of relieving themselves in decent places without feeling ashamed or criminalized for it.
Mark L. Lloyd of Seattle is not a member of any charity or homeless organization. He simply goes to the homeless and provides them with a free rudimentary toilet set up. It consists of cat litter, toilet paper, a five-gallon plastic bucket, and a small tent. He does not just provide those useful toilets which are much appreciated. He also attempts to assist the homeless with other useful things as well as addresses of places which can assist them. For instance, what began with providing a toilet to an old homeless man ended with Lloyd helping the man to become reunited with his daughter whom he had fallen out with!
The main point is that fighting for the right to accessible and decent toilets for the homeless provides unforeseen benefits. More toilets means much better streets.