Augean stable

\aw-JEE-un-STAY-bul\

noun

: a condition or place marked by great accumulation of filth or corruption

i floss every night. i can't remember when i started this habit—two or three years ago, perhaps. i didn't start because i wanted cleaner gums; it was another attempt to prove to myself that good habits are easier to form than they seem. i wonder if dentists would be more successful if they tried a different approach:

"you do realize that flossing is just running a piece of minty thread in between your teeth for, like, ninety seconds."

this is what i told myself, and it worked.

unfortunately, flossing has made my bathroom mirror into somewhat of an AUGEAN STABLE. what i mean is that everything that is hiding out between my teeth gets flossed out and subsequently flicked onto the bathroom mirror. i'm not intentionally trying to flick it there—i'm sure some of it ends up in the sink or on the faucet—but when the floss is pulled taught in preparation for the next crevice, most of the debris heads in the direction of the mirror.

so, my good habit has drawn attention to the neglect of another responsibility: cleaning the bathroom. i'm not crazy about this chore (although i used to be [refer to jan 14]). and i suppose i should heed my good-habit-forming skills and just do it. just clean the mirror. it's so simple. but i still don't want to do it. and i think it's because i don't like that the dirtiness of the bathroom mirror is a result of the cleanliness of my gums. i feel as if the lethargy that i eradicated by forming and keeping a good habit (flossing) somehow just got displaced. it is now the debris on the mirror, a new apathy that i must expunge by the act of cleaning.

and so it goes. good habits are everywhere just waiting to attract unassuming people like myself.