It was a lovely spring evening at the ballpark, one spent watching grandson number one as he played and occasionally making the required trip to the concession stand with grandson number two (who leans more toward the artistic side of the world than the sporty side). But this particular trip involved a visit to the restroom . . .  probably brought on by too many trips to the concession stand.

I insisted that he use the ladies’ side since I could at least help him if assistance was required and he didn’t have to expose himself to the world in the process. As I walked into the restroom, I was confronted with the sign you see here.  My first thought was “Really?” but my second thought, which quickly followed on the heels of my first, was “Why did anyone think this was a good idea?”

Think about it. It should go without saying that rocks do not belong in the toilet for all kinds of reasons.  To quote the great philosopher and comedian, James Gregory, “You know what that means?  Sometime in the past . . .”  As I mentally reviewed the categories of people that might be prone to such behavior, I decided the most likely candidates would be small children.  Small children who do not have the required thought processes to understand that putting rocks into a toilet is bad . . . and who cannot read; therefore . . .

Anyone else who might engage in such behavior is engaging in intentional vandalism, so a mere sign attached to the wall, requesting that such behavior be avoided, is not going to deter them from their maliciousness. As I mentioned in paragraph three, sentence two, it should go without saying that rocks do not belong in the toilet.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of times in this life when stating the obvious should not be necessary, but it is. Don’t run with scissors.  Don’t touch things that are hot.  Don’t get into it with your family when someone dies.  But time and time again, acceptable behaviors that should be understood are not—and the end result is never good.

I’m not going to start an in depth discussion regarding the consequences of running with sharp, pointy things or touching glowing red objects; those don’t really have any bearing on our role in life unless they end in Death. But I am going to tell you that everyone really appreciates it when a family can work together to honor a loved one.  Sadly, that isn’t always the case.  There will be those family members who will argue and threaten and stomp out of the proceedings and sometimes even require the presence of our local law enforcement.  And you know what it all accomplishes?  Absolutely nothing—other than to make an already difficult situation even worse.

Most families who are at odds with one another manage to declare a truce for just a few days and come together to plan and then attend the going away party. For those families we are exceedingly grateful.  By setting aside their differences they have honored the life of the one they’ve lost.  And for those who don’t even make a token effort?  Their anger keeps them from focusing on the loss; it masks the true source of their pain and never allows them to begin healing.  The day will come when they will regret their actions and it will probably be at a point when making amends is no longer an option.  After all, there are only so many rocks you can throw in the toilet before it quits working all together—and the bigger the rock, the harder it is to remove.

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