Well, we’re onto another year. I look back in time when the culture was far simpler. This type of reverie is pleasant but the reality is that we are doing more in one day than my grandmother did in a week. Our lives are permeated with choices that can be difficult to navigate.
Today, when we wake up and wander into the bathroom to brush our teeth: we have four different brands of toothpaste to choose from, one for whitening, one with florid protection, one for fresher breathe, or one that’s organic and natural. We floss, and water pick. Then we take a shower. Our shower head is able to pulsate, vibrate, and gyrate; it can probably fill in if our blender beaks. Keep in mind that multi-tasking is very important in today’s world, so if we can wash our backs and make our breakfast smoothie at the same time, we’re golden.
We have a natural soap, a cleansing soap, a moisturizer soap, and an astringent soap. We have soaps that smell like rose petals, and lily of the valley; like basil, rosemary, parsley, and avocado. Just choosing the soap we use to wash behind our ears is like picking a week’s worth of groceries from the farmer’s market. Are we washing our face, or making a marinara sauce?
Next we wash our hair. We don’t just use a shampoo, no. We use a hair care system. First a pre-wash with a clarifying treatment, than a shampoo designed for “your” specific type of hair. You follow-up with a conditioner that is married to your shampoo, then depending on the weather-we choose a hair spray that is analogous to the weather. If it’s really windy we want to opt for one that will keep our hair completely still.
We reach for our deodorant, but then we remember a television show that warned us that a new scientific study has determined that when rats are exposed to an amount of deodorant roughly equivalent to the highest peak of Mount Everest, they develop a pre-cancerous condition.
We haven’t even left the bathroom and we’ve used fifteen products, made twenty decisions, had a mild case of panic about our susceptibility to a debilitating disease, and probably are exhausted from applying so many products. You are only in the beginning of the day, and you still have to have your “clean” breakfast, work out, and make sure you have healthy snacks to take with you wherever you go. After all you want to live a long life, even though you might not be having any fun while you’re living.
Of course, I’m exaggerating , but humor is what makes life palatable. If it is one thing that I will keep recommending as well as a practice to maintain inner peace and harmony. May the New Year bring you good health and happiness.