Archive for month: June, 2009

IN THE MEN’S REST ROOM

I had a very dear friend named Georges. He originated Handy Dan Stores which morphed into Handy City Stores. As the company got larger, he hired a number of high powered executives who were more focused on the movement of money than they were in the kind of humanistic, hands-on approach that Georges was known for. He was also a spiritual seeker. When board meetings became too rancorous and oppressive, he told me that he would go to the rest room and as he stood at the urinal, he would look at a light directly in front of him and remind himself to center himself and return to a place of spiritual peace.

That made quite an impression on me even years after Georges had passed on. I was thinking of Georges the other day, coincidentally, as I was on my way to the men’s room. As I stood in front of the urinal, I glanced up and found myself transfixed by the logo on a box whose purpose was to sanitize and deodorize. The name of the company was Auto-San, which I translated into the purpose of my therapy practice as automatic sanity. I glanced at the bottom of the logo and was surprised to find the company slogan: “Heavenly Scent.” Now I was hooked. With a certain amount of squinting, I began to make out a tiny figure in the center of the logo. It looked like a young boy sitting cross-legged on a cloud. Even closer inspection (at this point I was longing for a magnifying glass), showed this young boy had a halo.

Like a pilgrim searching for the holy grail, I went back to my office and dove into the world of Google and finally discovered the location of Auto-San. It was on Bartlett Avenue right here In Memphis. After a number of calls, I learned that the president of the company had died but there were some people who possessed the original art work for the logo. After a brief business meeting, I was granted the right to use the logo in this article. Here it is:

I can’t help but think that Georges is looking over my shoulder, smiling his sweet smile, as I write this article.

Mark Weiss, Ph.D., Seeker-at-large