Sometimes as I write, I worry that you will think I have truly lost my mind.
I often think about SOAP!
I do!
Now, I am NOT a "SOAP GUY", meaning I don't go around thinking about soap all of the time, wondering when I am going to buy my next bar.
BUT, to be honest, I am a "TUB GUY". I love taking baths. I probably take 4 to 5 tubs in a week, and it is the place where I get away from the world, think, and breathe deeper. I really don't get why more people don't use their tubs.
Anyway...
Last year for Christmas, my son bought my wife the most beautiful soaps that I have ever seen.
They are multi colored, multi textured, wonderfully perfumed... just inspired and gorgeous works of art. Every bar is unique.
And, my wife put one in the tub.
I have been using this bar for several months. A week ago, I was there when it happened... I felt a relationship with this one bar... we had spent alot of time together.
And, then, on one final swipe across my beard... the little sliver of soap... disappeared.
It reminded me of that thought that I have always had...
HOW DO SOAP DIE? ;-)
I know they don't really die... but you know what I mean...
I realize SOAPS meet their demise in three different ways. We typically fall into three types of soap users...
1. THE ABANDONER... This is the soap that is left alone when it gets small. It gets dry and curved. It sometimes yellows. Eventually, we throw this soap out directly into the trash, leaving its last few baths unused. I believe it is the saddest of all ends for soap bars.
2. THE PIGGY BACKER... This is the soap that doesn't want to die. It wants to live forever. So, when it gets small enough, it "piggy backs" onto the back of another soap that looks just like it, and blends into that new bar. You never know exactly when that bar died... it possibly never did... It just became part of something new.
3. THE MAGICIAN... This is my favorite... This is the soap that actually disappears before your eyes. It gets smaller and smaller, and then during one of your most dynamic scrubs, as the soap seems flimsy enough to be blown away into the air, it magically disappears. Every last ounce of its beauty consumed into cleansing you...
Ok... maybe I am a little nuts... but I think about soap... and I compare it to our lives and how we live.
I like number 3.
I want to live my life like the beautiful and unique bar of soap that my son bought my wife.
I don't want to look like every other bar on the shelf.
I don't want to be thrown away when I am dry and aged.
I don't want to pretend that I will live forever.
I want to consume myself through my life - bringing pleasure and joy and meaning to those times that we get to spend together.
And, someday, I know that I will disappear... much like a magician... and all that will be left is the memory of our exchanges... of our embrace... of our joy... or simply of our conversation.
I don't want to be a "SOAP guy"...
I want to be a magician...
I want to dispense myself to everyone around me,
in a meaningful and valuable way.
I want to take long baths,
and long breaths,
Until I disappear...
In harmony,
Nestor
P.S. For those of you who are fans of liquid soap in the tub, please move along. Liquid soaps have a place in public bathrooms, but in my own tub, I want a bar of soap that I can touch and hold.