You ever think about how many other people have pissed in that toilet?
One of the funny things we do as a species—and I think it’s hermit crabs which do this too, it’s not just us—is take over each other’s dwellings. We reuse our houses. We reuse cars a lot, too, and shops, and we’re huge on reusing beds. You ever think about how many other people have slept on that pillow at the Courtyard by Marriott?
I think the homes are the weirdest, followed by hotels, followed by rental cars. With rental cars, it’s wacky. Someone steps out and a few hours later you step in. Cars are the cultural heir to the role of the horse, and if we did that shit with horses, I feel like they’d be stressed the hell out. You can’t rent dogs, you know? With hotels, it’s even weirder, because there’s something really personal about a bed. That’s why I usually try to avoid approaching someone when they’re in their bed. It’s a personal space! Homes, though…
In apartments and condos and full-on houses, in most cases your family (or set of roommates) is not the only one that’s inhabited the living place. “Your” room was someone else’s. They lived a whole darn life in there! Now you’re living a whole darn life in there. Trippy. Maybe this is how we came up with ghosts. That or ghosts are real. You never want to rule out ghosts. If nothing else, they’re a convenient scapegoat when you tear all the decorations off the walls after listening to a pop punk song which tells you there are no rules.
