October 22, 2017 – The simplest of things still fascinate me.

        It was an ordinary cleaning day where I put my mind on auto-pilot and go through the motions of cleaning the bathroom.

        Scrubbing the floor my shoulder inadvertently nudged the half-empty toilet tissue roll and it started to unroll.   I didn’t stop it expecting it to stop in a revolution or two or three. I simply sat back on my heels and watched it as I was in a daydream you get when you are thinking other things far away from where you are.   At first the plush two-ply rolled slowly then it speed up and the entire half roll ended up looped back and forth on the clean floor much like an oversized pasta noodle folding out of a pasta machine.

        First, I was amazed at the slowness then the speed. Then, I was actually delighted by the symmetry of the back and forth looping of the unrolled tissue on the floor.

        Often we have seen in toilet tissue commercials or comics about cats unrolling toilet tissue –but I’ve owned cats and only once I caught my little T.C. kitten “thinking about” the toilet tissue dangling and I grabbed him and kept the bathroom door closed during his kitten years.  So, I had never experienced the cat play with toilet tissue ending results.

        From one aspect, I’ve missed something – the cuteness of it and from another aspect the science behind the acceleration of slow rolling to suddenly fast rolling.  I wonder what scientific name they have for that -   does it fall under the laws of gravity or the laws of momentum or something.   Me, I was a poor student in science class, got the basics of why you add salt to ice in order to make it colder for the ice cream churn and something about the extra ions or molecules during a rainy day was supposed to assist your brain when taking tests. [I think that is an old wife’s tale though.]

        But it gave me a small respite to put things into perspective – this too, the little incident of the toilet tissue spilling off the roll onto the floor in such a way was interesting, eventful and in its own way soothing.

        The continuous laws of nature never end and never cease to surprise and, yes, delight me when witnessed quietly and unexpectedly.

        I’ll never look at a roll of toilet tissue the same way.  Who would have known something so simple could force me to sit and think this deeply and give my soul such needed refreshment.