Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Privacy's Last Stand!


In my world there is only one place left where I can claim complete privacy - the shower!

Some people I informally surveyed said the toilet but that doesn't work. There are actually people who aren't even deterred from entering while you're sitting on the john.

The shower! It's the last place. If you shower with someone it's because you invited them in to share your world. Otherwise, behind the cover of a thin shower curtain, ultimate privacy! That thin barrier is literally the difference between your secrets being kept or fully exposed. There is nothing to hide from in the shower. Dirt don't kill unless it falls from above so even the task of showering provides few challenges. Some people have a collection of things that they deem necessary for showering but otherwise, by now, I think I got a routine to this daily chore - just me, a bar of soap and my loofa!

There you are standing in your nakedness, fully naked! Cleansing all your secret locations, preparing your mind and spirit for the day or evening, washing away your past in order to prepare for what is to come all while standing there BEING with what IS!

I linger after my cleansing routine because only I know the true effort it will take to pull that curtain back and face the day.

As I inhale the last moments of hot steam, there is cold world waiting to greet me on the other side. Bracing myself, I take one last drenching in the heat of the water hoping its warmth will last long enough for me to grab the towel that is feet away.

There is no Facebook for Showers or Twitter for Bathers. Don't have a water proof Crackberry. The shower has no camera (unless you put one there). Even Reality TV hasn't created a show 'From the Shower'. I go in with nothing and come out the same way. I only have a moment but those few moments represent an important grounding to my day. Only I can stand there in it, contemplating, preparing, thinking, meditating, pondering, wondering about my life. I can even utter the ridiculous and absurd, the thoughtful and insightful, the dream of the impossible into to the safety of the flowing waters coming out of the massage of the WaterPik. Can't hide there for long in the warmth of the water. Even that eventually runs out of steam. Privacy's Last Stand: an oasis in the middle of my mind chaos.


Sent with Love from my CrackBerry