Gunga GaLunga

June 11, 2020:

My kitchen sink is clogged, which leads me to ponder, is this some kind of a metaphor? Hmmm…maybe, maybe not. This is not the first time that I’ve had disputes with my double sink. However, for the most part anyways, I’ve generally been able to settle the majority of disagreements between the two of us with the simple help of a handy plunger, or in the grimmest of cases a bottle of liquid Draino.

But when you think of the years of accumulated grease build up, food scraps that run through the garbage disposal, and soap scum build up, it’s no wonder the functionality of this neglected system has been stressed to the point of eruption. Turn on the garburator serving the one basin and watch a geyser of foul water burst out of the other (add some blinking lights and music and you’ve got yourself a Vegas show).

When you think about what’s happening in our immediate world right now and equate it to what’s going on in my kitchen the parallels are interestingly similar. Please don’t get me wrong, there is no comparison to the degree of anger and push back, pain and suffering that is in the forefront of the current global dynamic, but isn’t a competent solution all that any of us are looking for?

As I hate unresolved issues, my first response naturally, was to simply deal with the clogging problem in typical fashion, beat it into submission using the methods previously mentioned, figuring that sooner or later we would come to some kind of a mutual understanding. “I am superior (PLUNGE! PLUNGE! PLUNGE!), and you will work in the way in which you were intended” (PLUNGE! PLUNGE! PLUNGE!). Pretty sure we’ve all had bosses like that.

Sure, it’s possible that this strategy might yield some positive results for a short period of time, but after a while as we know, it will most likely not resolve the underlying issues. One cannot continually feed crap down someone else’s throat and expect them to gleefully operate at optimum efficiency. Certainly, not without some kind of resentment or retribution.

Now, I know that I don’t always get it right. In fact, I am certain that those closest to me (any guesses?) will testify under oath that I sometimes say and do the wrong things and that I may carelessly discard someone else’s opinion if it clashes with mine, but I would like to think that I’m growing as a creative soul and am finding alternative solutions to these recurring problems.

Queue the hired professional, aka, the plumber. And yes, he was skilled and knowledgeable enough to know that the previous person who performed the original installation when the house was first built used typical shortcuts (twists, turns and T-junctions) that could not only cause blockages under certain circumstances, but also make running a snake line down the drainpipe leading out of the house a little trickier than a layman might expect.

So, even with the solid hardware provided to me by my older son (who has access to the newest tools in the rental industry), without proper training, an understanding of the plumbing layout and a little knowledge about the history of the house, I was never going to resolve this situation no matter how hard I plunged (or snaked). Does any of this sound familiar? In a leader of a country sort of way?

Ignorance is not bliss, it’s just ignorance, and although embracing education can be a painful lesson sometimes, it can also be empowering. If we learn from our past mistakes (history) we become wiser and less likely to repeat the same ones in the future, and in my case, if something like this sink rebellion should ever happen again, may also save me a few bucks in plumber fees.

This one's just for fun.

Until next time.

P.S. Thanks for reading/watching.