Wave n' Dry to Insanity

Harkins Hall, fourth floor, about 2:17 p.m.. Enter yours truly on the scene and then exeunt into the men's bathroom. As I finish washing my hands, the cold water refreshing me on such a muggy day, the unthinkable happens. Even as I wave my hands, still dripping water on the tile floor, underneath the towel dispenser, no response. As I realize that this device is obviously looking for more, I begin to gesticulate wildly under the machine, despite the concerned look of a solitary Friar who enters the bathroom behind me. Apparently, the simple idea of clean, dry hands is not to be mine today.

When something is a nuisance, I began to consider how best to phrase it to others when I inevitably let them know what exactly had happened. And I decided on this more metaphysical idea: the emergence of such things as the automatic Purell station, timed faucets, and now this despicable paper dispenser, this damnable "Wave N' Dry," is merely catering to the ignorance and laziness of the common man.

Now, before a tirade of angry readers gets its philanthropic pens out, let me speak. These advances, these sensory flushers, these auto-turn off faucets, even this "Wave N' Dry," all have their place. I know that they help to conserve water, they assist people who cannot necessarily get up to the lever to release towels, and they make our lives that much easier. Nevertheless, in doing so, what are we losing? When I have to elbow down on the faucet-starter merely because my hands are covered in too much soap from an auto-dispenser, and then, when after all this I can't even get a damned towel from the wall, there is something that has to be said.

I would like to think that all of us, or at least all of the Providence College community, know when to stop taking towels, or to turn the water off after our hands are clean, or perhaps most obvious of all, to flush the toilet when we're done with it. These automatic devices, boon that they might be to some, are more than an inconvenience. I would say that they slow me down even more with my already way too busy schedule. Moreover, it implies to people psychologically that they can merely live their lives without being truly concerned about the resources they consume, or with the messes they leave behind. In addition, it means that people can be lazy about these things as well as being ignorant.

So the next time you walk by a pile of Purell thanks to a faulty machine dripping onto the ground, or when (like me) you can't get any type of towel to wipe off your hands besides your own pants leg, or when the toilet flushes underneath you, remember: Do not be lazy and ignorant. Consider how much you're consuming and what waste you're leaving. And if I forever have to live with automatic dispensers, flushers, and soon everything else, for God's sake improve the damn sensors so I don't embarrass myself in front of another Dominican when he thinks I'm possessed as I gesticulate wildly underneath the Wave N' Dry station.