Okay, for years, Tim and I have been battling over toilet paper. Yes, I will admit in the beginning, I was the type of person who left two squares on the roll and walked away without remorse. However, I have faithfully kept the bathroom stocked with TP for the last six years, and I always change the roll.

Tim refuses to acknowledge it, and he never changes the roll. Now granted, he was subjected to five years of abuse before my reform. He will leave it empty and then deny it when I find the roll in an empty state. He has even pulled the empty roll off and placed it on the bathroom counter as if to taunt me, then when I call him out on it, he denies it. He will actually say I must have done that and don’t remember. Don’t remember! What, is he gaslighting me! LOL. He even did again just the other day. I need to start taking my phone to the bathroom to collect evidence of his defiance.

Before this blog, we posted a poll across our social media asking our followers, “who leaves the roll empty after using it and refuses, in some type of protest, to replace it?” One brave soul called her family out by saying, “Everyone who lives in my home and one son who lives on his own.” Wow, even when her son visits, he refuses to change the roll. And I know this person well, and I know her bathroom is well stocked. In my house, all you have to do is turn around and grab the new roll off the back of the toilet. It is that easy. Why the protest?

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt like you didn’t quite fit in? It could be for any reason. Maybe what you’re wearing, the color of your skin, your age, your sex, or any one of a multitude of other reasons. And I’m not talking about situations where others made you feel that way; I’m talking about those times when the feeling is totally from within. For example, years ago, when I was in the Air Force, a lady I knew took her older son to a Gospel service on base during African American Heritage Month. Her son, high school age, told her after the service that it was a very awkward feeling being the only white people in the service, but went on to say it was enlightening to feel how others must feel at times.
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I saw on the news today that college students were going on a hunger strike. Regardless of the purpose of the hunger strike, who really cares? Why does it even warrant making the news? I’ve seen this used as a method of protest in the past, usually by a two-year-old. I’m always baffled, especially in America where people tend to be overweight – 73.6% in 2017-2018 (CDC National Center for Health Statistics). Maybe we should all go on a hunger strike!

By Timothy Birdsell

​When Marie-Antoinette said that during the French Revolution, I doubt she even thought about people being lactose intolerant and couldn’t eat cake. Of course not. People still don’t give it much thought unless you are one of the 30 million Americans (MedlinePlus (www.medlineplus.gov) n.d.) that has some level of lactose intolerance or you cook for one with the disorder – like my wife.