Becoming a Man

Tonight, Troy became a man. He passed through his rite of passage, and he came out on the other side. Some cultures have a youth go on a hunting trip with the warriors, some have them go on a walkabout through the wilderness, and some have them take down a wolf with their wits and a spear. But in my family that transition into manhood is when you go number two and stop up your first toilet.

Troy came home from daycare, and as we were taking off his clothes for his bath, he said he needed to use the potty. We rushed in there; he sat down; and some 10 seconds later, he said he was done. At first, I thought he was faking, because there’s no way he could go that fast. But lo and behold when he got up, there was a gigantic, man-size poop in the toilet underneath him. When he tried to flush it, the water level rose and swirled in circles, but nothing went down. It took three tries to finally get it to break loose enough to make its way into the unknown (Frozen 2 reference implied).

I’m proud of Troy most for telling us he needed to go, because that level of communication has been sparse lately. I’m also proud of him for going in the potty, because he was still wearing underwear at the time, which would normally be a cue to let it ride. And finally, I’m proud of him for fulfilling his rite of passage earlier than any of the men before him. Both my father and brother (two notorious toilet cloggers) were proud as well. My brother gave a shoutout that Troy was representing! Indeed he was.