BraceLand

Since it’s the holiday season, I suppose I should give public thanks to those little things that I find awe inspiring in my day-to-day existence.
One of the most inspiring has got to be the hot shower. It’s a measure of our prosperity that we take utterly for granted the practically limitless amount of hot water us westerners have at our disposal at all times. The act of standing under a steaming stream of water mere seconds after turning a knob has got to be the definition of luxury. Considering that about 1/6 of the world’s population doesn’t have access to clean water, let alone those who don’t have indoor plumbing, let alone those who don’t have a hot water tank, well, you can imagine how few people can take a hot shower every day (being the pampered American that I am, I was too lazy to track down actual statistics to back up that assertion).

So here’s to showers. Hot ones. Ones that have played a large part in advancing public health and, more importantly, my mental and spiritual health. As winter approaches, and with it those frigid dark mornings, I’m very thankful for my 10 minutes of spa-like pleasure every day before I face my first-world life full of annoyances like waiting ten minutes for the bus to come, or gmail being down, or the homeless man living in my basement. While I’m sure there are other little luxuries that I’m taking for granted while I’m busy figuring out how to change the TV channel without my remote, I can’t be bothered to take the time away from my $6 Sunday New York Times to think of what they might be. If they should occur to me (maybe when I’m dropping some change in the Salvation Army tin?), I’ll be sure to post them on my blog immediately.