The Unasked Question

     When one tells friends about going on a cleanse, there's always the weight of the unasked question in the room. How does this diet affect the gastro-intestinal tract? What about the poop? Of course,one's intimates will venture down this scatalogical road, but there is an inherent shyness in our culture about talking about shit. We talk about everything else mind you, people's sex life, or lack their of, how much they earn, pay for rent, price of home/condo/coop, their ethnicity...' Hi I just met you, what are you?'. But poop, and bodily functions brings out the prude in all of us.
     Years ago I was surprised to learn that in Polynesia, people used to invite their friends to go off, and poop with them. It was considered a social event. After all,... we all have to do it, it takes a certain amount of time out of the day, and hopefully we are doing it several times a day if our innards are functioning correctly.
     Small children, even in our culture are much more social about it,' Mommy will you stay here while I'm pooping.I want to talk to you'. Obviously, the move away from inviting friends , and family into the bathroom is as strong a statement of  the loss of innocence, as Adam, and Eve covering their nakedness with a fig leaf, and it too connotes the price of knowledge.
     I myself suffer from the sin of self consciousness, and would prefer that people not discuss body functions in polite conversation. As the mother of a twenty year old male, and the aunt to four more male adolescents I will frankly confess that many a pleasant meal has been ruined by their bad table manners, and grotesque mention of bodily functions which would best left unmentioned.
     But, back to the role of poop when one is doing a cleanse. Allow me to wrap up this conversation up by remarking that one wants as much of it to leave oneself as possible Think of it as a physical correlative to giving up something for Lent, or asking for forgiveness during Yom Kippur (.no disrespect meant to either religion by juxtaposition to this topic). One wants to be free of one's gastronomic, and gustatory sins. Ate that fried chicken, bad girl, onion rings, french fries, bad girl, steak, hamburger, bad, bad, girl, too many martinis, and champagne, hang your head in shame. Can there be redemption for a sinner like me? Yes, through eating raw fruits, and vegetables, by going on a cleanse, and juicing, by taking noxious combinations of herbs, and supplements, by getting colonics. I will not elucidate the uninitiated on that topic today.
     Pray for me all you sinners, because I am one of you.And even if because of health concerns I never am as indulgent as I once was, like Jimmy Carter once famously said 'I have lusted in my heart.'.