Two A Day

We just talked about something as complex as love, so I’m guessing we can now talk freely about most anything.  Well, how about a subject that is an intimate part of the everyday life of every person you know.  Intrigued? Read on.

Bathing. Specifically, showers.  Now, admittedly, we usually don’t go around talking, emailing, facebooking (ugh), or even tweeting (tweet: I’m in the shower, with one other - now there’s a tweet I’d love to see) about our personal daily bathing habits.  It’s just not a topic for lunch, or tea, or even happy hour.  But over the years, as a small part of larger conversations, we usually can pick up on tidbits here and there.  In the alleged words of the late Alphonse Capone:  a word here, a word there, pretty soon you’ve got a whole sentence.

The “whole sentence” I’ve heard applies to a majority of us, perhaps even a vast majority.  And that is this:  we humans take, at best, one shower a day, and that is usually a morning shower.   Well, I’ll start the conversation, as I step out of the shower and become the first to bring this essential part of our lives to the kitchen table. 

As for me, I take two showers a day.  Allow me to explain why, and just maybe, you will see showers in a different light.  Even if you’re not looking for an explanation, or you’re suddenly thinking this is a good time to change the cat’s litter box, hear me out. 

We all need a shower in the morning, just to wash the cobwebs out and to feel fresh for the coming day. Now, I’m not talking about a 10 minute soak here, a two or three minute session should be just fine.  Cate Blanchett takes a 3 minute shower, to conserve water.  If that is good enough for her, it's good enough for all of us.  If you can't wash yourself in 3 mintues, you must have been a sloth in a former life.  Anything beyond 3 minutes deserves a bath - and that is a subject for an entirely different blog post!  Wash n’ go….start your day!  Don’t forget the hair.  Did you know that over a century ago, Mark Twain usually washed his hair each day, at a time when people did not bathe every day, or perhaps even every week.  And they called them the good old days.  

The most important shower of the day does not come at sunrise; it occurs at sunset.  The evening shower is an indispensable part of my day.  In some ways, it is more important than the morning shower, and if I had to choose only one shower each day, it would be at night.  Why?

Just think of what your day was like -- all the things you did, all the places you went, all the physical and emotional trials your body, mind, and spirit went through.  Did you frame a house, weed a garden, or something in between?  Was there a stressful meeting, a personal relationship crisis or change, did you get laid off?  Did you just miss getting in a  serious accident, or get caught up in a family feud?  Were you subjected to using less than ideal public facilities (you know what I mean)?  By day’s end, every part of your being has been affected in some way by the events of the day.  That physical and emotional baggage must be shed for you to return to normal.

Showers cleanse and heal on many levels.  The evening shower, also only a 2-3 minute rinse, literally washes away the cares of the day.  It takes away the grime you can see, as well as the poisons you cannot see.  It relaxes, soothes, and puts body, mind, and spirit in a tranquil state.  You feel clean, refreshed, and most importantly, calmed.  It is a perfect segue to a peaceful night’s sleep.

Don’t believe me yet?  Listen (now, think bath = shower here, these pearls were written a long time ago) to these folks:

There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them – Sylvia Plath.

Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine – Thomas Aquinas

Bath twice a day to be really clean, once a day to be passably clean, and once a week to avoid being a public menace – Anthony Burgess

Now, you don’t want to be just “passably” clean do you?  I mean really, who could possibly accept that.  So, jump in, the water’s fine!

Mark Twain Quote:  “I don’t like this thing of being striped naked & washed.  I like to be stripped & warmed at the stove-that is real bully-but I do despise this washing business.  I believe it to be a gratuitous & unnecessary piece of meanness. I never see them wash the cat.”