Bath:Shower :: Journey:Commute

Kenneth Setzer

So egalitarian and liberal does it seek out every fold, pit, nook and space; the water, so unlike the stinginess of a blanket (no matter how downy), comforts every pore. A blanket mocks your unease; it promises comfort but delivers little. Ere long you stir, and the cold seeps back in; it rushes to your most susceptible skin.

Yet the water, eager to comfort, thaws from outward in; unfailing, its effulgence flows and tumbles down encompassing. All earthly and imagined evils flee; you are protected.
As it softens skin, it works and works, ever inward, so that no tissue or sinew or muscle can resist; down to bone in fact and to the spark of God within.

Ablutions!

I write not of the physical benefits, though indeed they are innumerable, but of the moral and spiritual value. Archimedes! He knew a king’s crown is born in the water. Brethren bathers united in our hermitage, separate but one.


Kenneth Setzer enjoys researching and writing about natural history, science, botany, gardening, photography and human history, among other topics. His work has appeared in Shutterbug, Northwest Travel, The Miami Herald, and Sun-Sentinel. He is a writer and editor at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Florida. He blogs at http://intractableautodidact.wordpress.com/