Cross Cultural Experience In the Bathroom

Sometimes cross-cultural experiences can make for some of the funniest exchanges. Sometimes what is appropriate in one culture is just completely inappropriate in another. Beware, as many of these exchanges, this one is rated PG.

I was in the bathroom at work the other day out of the vision of those walking in the door. I thought I heard two men walk in. After a couple of seconds I heard each say a polite, "Hello" to the other. One voice I recognized as a relatively new coworker. The other was the voice of a small, old black man.

The next thing the old voice said was, "So, how big did it get?" After a couple of seconds, my large, tall coworker replied, "How big did what get?" "Your peter," the old man replied. Yes, you did read that correctly. There was a long, long silence. I was dying trying to hold in my laughter.

After a couple of seconds, the embarrassed old man apologized saying, "I didn't mean anything by that. I was only joking" Clearly, the old man had received the appropriate social punishment for such a statement.

This made me think about how I would react. In general, I don't really like to talk at the urinal, although, some would hold a perfectly normal conversation there with their pants unzipped. This is a good time for me to try to practice some spiritual discipline and love the guy anyway and just carry on as he does. Men should be forgiven if they violate a man-law.

It helps to be forgiving to imagine my grandfather standing at a urinal while some young guy comes up and says, "How's it hangin'" You can imagine the rest of the conversation...