I'm about to let you in on a little secret. During my sleeping hours, I have often dreamt of toilets. They are usually filthy, lack privacy and in the dream I am often unsure of which toilet to choose; I take a good look at a few before I finally decide upon one. I wake up right after choosing; it's like I'm just there to look around. When I say I have 'often' dreamt of toilets, it's not that often, yet I can distinctly recall at least 3 or 4 toilet dreams over the last 10 years. Nothing like being confronted with your own psychic and emotional waste when you'd rather be waking up after a hot sex dream or a prophetic glimpse of a beautifully imagined future scenario. Who knows, maybe that's all the toilet dreams are --- prophetic glimpses of the re-enactment of a lifelong daily habit -- visiting the toilet. However, the toilets I use don't look anything at all like what present in my dreams. Mind you, I have seen my fair share of rather unpleasant bathrooms throughout my worldly travels.
One night I had a dream of walking into a space and there were people seated on benches along the sides of the room. I soon realized that it was a public bathroom; one unlike any other I had seen before. I looked around and saw various people sitting in random places with a few empty spaces between them. The spaces were holes. I puzzled at where to sit and woke up from the dream feeling quite in awe of what I had witnessed. Little did I know that communal latrines were a 'thing' until I came across a postcard my mother had brought back from England. I was visiting my parents for the holidays and while helping her organize her office, I spotted the card in a basket along with some others. It was like finding a missing puzzle piece -- almost the exact same image from my dream. Who knows, I could have dreamt about the communal latrine the very day she bought the postcard. (Yes, things like this are possible and believe me, they do happen).
In fact, today, on CBC Radio's 'As It Happens' there was a feature about a trove of medieval artifacts that were found in an 'absolutely gargantuan' cesspit under a gallery in London, England. Turns out it used to be part of a bishop's home and the room was aptly named 'The Great House of Easement'. It's where the staff who worked for the Bishop would have done their 'duty'. Among the treasures found were a gold ring, a pendant, a piece of belt buckle, and some broken pottery and cookware. How these got there, one can only guess, however they suspect the ring and pendant were something that fell down the hole unexpectedly (and to much disappointment) while the broken pottery and belt buckle were likely discarded intentionally as they were no longer of any use.
I was reminded of my dream of the communal latrine and started doing further research on the history of toilets. While they date back to Roman times, these communal latrines were also found in medieval Britain. Before there were sewers, nightmen would be responsible for emptying the cesspits, taking the 'night soil' to their carts and mixing it with other rubbish to be sold to farmers as manure. This reminded me of my years teaching at Greenschool in Bali where we all used compost toilets. When nature called, you did your duty in a bucket (cleverly disguised as a toilet), covered it with sawdust, and it would then be taken to a space in the jungle surrounds to be composted and later used as fertilizer. There was a sweet Balinese woman who was responsible for removing and cleaning the buckets. Unlike the nightmen of England, she worked during daytime hours and every time I saw her I always felt sorry that she was assigned such a task. You'd think we'd all take personal responsibility for our own shit, in the same way we're expected to clean up after our beloved canines when they decide to drop their load on the neighbour's lawn.
I got to thinking, our poop can be a real treasure if disposed of and utilized in the right way (and if we consume healthy, natural diets). It used to be worth money. It used to be what enriched the soil to grow more food so that we could nourish ourselves and keep this ecological cycle going. It was about sacred symbiosis. People even socialized while doing their duty, providing each other with friendly conversation and real human relating, although I imagine it was quite smelly, at times very messy, and possibly risky, due to rats, parasites and the like. I cherish the privacy and quietude that household bathrooms provide. If cesspits existed today, in another 500 years archeologists would no doubt find thousands of cellphones lurking at the bottom, along with headphones and data cards full of strange pictures of human waste in its previous, undigested form.
I haven't had any toilet dreams in a long while. I see it as a good indicator that I am being mindful of taking responsibility for my physical, mental and emotional well-being. Art helps. Music helps. Friendship helps. Access to healthy organic food also helps. While my current home doesn't have a compost toilet, in reflecting on my time in Bali, I am reminded of the importance of living in symbiosis with the earth in as many aspects of my life as possible. True sustainability starts from the inside out by choosing to ingest only what is genuinely nourishing, and that includes ideas, media, things, people, as well as food. Then, it's about taking care of our own shit (figuratively speaking), so that what we share is also truly nourishing to others and honoring of the environment that surrounds and supports us. There's treasure at the bottom of the cesspit. You can start to empty it now and gather the jewels to share with those around you, or wait for the nightmen of your unconscious to start pulling it up in buckets and spilling it out in front of you in your waking life, so you'll take notice. Ew. Gross. You're worthy of something far more beautiful and far less challenging to navigate. Take responsibility now. Mother Earth never wanted us to struggle. We all deserve to live in a great green house of easement, where all flows in sacred cycles, with clean waters, nature's bounty, shining hearts and the joyful giving back of what is given, in gratitude. -- FMH
Links:
https://www.historyextra.com/period/tudor/toilet-history-facts-thomas-crapper-spend-penny-romans/