Today in a public restroom I turned the faucet off for the woman next to me.
I did it because she was drying her hands and I thought maybe she forgot. I also did it because I couldn’t stop thinking that she was wasting water. Every time I see someone wasting good water I can’t help but think, Well, there goes my great grandchildren’s water just running down the drain.
Anyway.
The woman turns to me and says, “You shouldn’t have done that.”
Yikes, what did I do? I thought. “Why?” I say.
“Because after you wash and dry your hands you contaminate them by touching the faucet,” she says.
She actually said contaminate. Contaminate. Is this woman crazy? Who says contaminate? Just the sound of the word made the small portion of my fingers that had just touched the faucet start to tingle a little.
“Oh. Yeah, well I also have to open this door with the handle that is probably contaminated too. It’s everywhere. But I know what you mean,” I say.
This woman doesn’t know that I have been putting toilet paper down on public restroom toilet seats my entire life. I have also been opening doors with my feet for years. I know what this woman means.
Today I just didn’t care.
