The Great Inventiveness Of Man

I used to think of the toilet - beyond the utilitarian 'beauty' of indoor plumbing itself - as a great invention.  And it is.  But what about the lowly toilet paper roll itself?  Now, there's a perfect example of applied physics.  As the old TV commercial had it, in relating it to a lovely cuddly puppy dog, running away some distance with the business end of it from a young boy's need in the moment: "Soft and smooth and lo-o-o-ng."  Yet there it sits, normally.  Like an obedient, selfless pet, quietly awaiting its summoning to duty.  Forlorn.  Taken for granted...

And its use being multipurpose at that.  I remember well how, at the end especially of an Experience Week for our guests at the spiritual community where I was a member for many years, but actually at the end of all of our programs, we used to have a roll - two, actually - of this wondrous stuff available, for when the guests, in sharing about their week in our community, were often given to choking up about it, and lo! - the lowly roll of t.p. would spring (well, be sprung, if you want to be picky about it) into action, and do its manifold duty; and sometimes be rolled out around the room, as others in the group responded to someone's tearful, sometimes even sobbing, sharing with their own responses in kind.1    

Yes, there are the likes of the internal combustion engine.  And the airplane.  And the telegraph-cum-telephone-cum-Internet.  And they all are, indeed, fine examples of the inventive mind of Man.2  But don't forget, in your occasional rumination on this sort of thing, the lowly toilet paper roll.

It is in a class all its own.  For, tell me, really: Which, of all these excellent inventions, could you do the least without, in your daily life?  And even in comparison to indoor plumbing itself??  Which most of the people on the planet don't even have??? ...

May we never take the little things in life for granted.

Here's to the lowly t.p. roll.

There should be a statue of it - to it - somewhere.

And I bet you:

It will never be torn down.

For, we are all the same.

In the end.

-=-

footnotes:

1 A phenomenon engaged in this particular way for some time, until the female co-founder of our community, in being involved once in this sort of program-concluding event, took umbrage at our Educators' use of this handy item, and insisted that we spend the money for tissues proper.  And thus passed a golden age in our community...
   ...but I digress.
   In memoriam.

2 I hesitate to include the transistor in this listing (and some other ingenious devices), because there is some evidence that it was bequeathed to Man - excuse me; humankind -  from off-planet sources.
   But generally speaking, you understand what I mean.