Einstein On A Bathroom Tile

There are times seeing is believing, but in what are you believing?

I believe in miracles. They happen everyday, little ones and big ones, amazing stuff happens. I'm a miracle kind of gal. However, I used to make sport of people who claimed to see the Holy Folk in common, and uncommon, things until it happened to me. Well, it wasn't Holy Folk, like Jesus, or Mary, not even an apostle, nor was it Mary Magdalene who may or may not be, or possess, the Holy Grail. No, it was actually stranger than that.

You see, I saw Albert Einstein on a bathroom tile. Not the one in my home, that would have been too easy but a little more suspect. No, Albert's visage indeed is embossed on one of the tiles in shades of sepia. It's a full bust of him responded with leonine hair right there on the floor. I know that people who see the Holy Folk on their trees, windows, toast, or the steam from a billboard bowl of soup and they get messages or they can interpret these visions for the betterment of the world around them. However, no matter how often I see Al in that tile I can't see the relativity in it. I have a daughter called MC and she thinks I'm square but that, just like the sentence before, represents quite a bad pun. Why Albert? Why the women's bathroom at work? Most importantly, what should I do about it?

This is a real dilemma. I can't very well pull the tile up. First, I think my employer just might get a little bit upset over that one. Secondly, does it lose its value if taken away from its natural environment? Finally, should I call one of the grocery store mags and let them know that Albert Einstein is at this very moment on a tile in a bathroom? I thought about taking a picture of it, but threw that idea out because I wasn't sure I could explain adequately why I was taking a camera into the bathroom, not to forget that I could be accused of digitally enhancing the picture for profit. However, why would I pick Albert Einstein?

Which brings me back to the question I ask my self every time I look down and see him gazing off into the cosmos: Why Albert Einstein? Maybe it's because he was a funny guy, maybe it's because he believed that imagination was more important than intelligence. Einstein valued imagination over intelligence because he witnessed the stagnation of many an intelligent soul who wasted away life's beautiful moments for the sake of pursuing intelligence and academia. I fear our education systems are quickly moving toward the thing Einstein disliked the most, life without imagination, life built on academic accomplishments without stepping outside the box that holds them. The school term is longer, standardized testing drives the educational process; however, our children are no more intelligent. They suffer more stress and in essence are functionally illiterate. They cannot write properly, speak properly, perform basic arithmetic, nor problem solve. More frightening they can no longer entertain themselves without the aide of sensory overload.

Why do I see Albert Einstein? I see him because somewhere in my life someone lay on the grass alongside me on a warm summer day and pointed out cloud pictures, or because teachers insisted that I question what I read, formed opinions based on what I saw, heard, and read. Maybe I see Einstein because I played with dolls as if they were real not because they functioned like real babies. Maybe it's because the neighborhood children played games that involved pictures painted from the mind and not produced by electronic gadgetry. I may never know the real reason but for now I will just enjoy Albert's little joke.