I'll be home for Christmas...

...and I'm so excited!

Fighting the Fade

As time goes by, some things fade away. Some things seem to lose their significance simply because they happen so often. Other things, of a more uncommon nature, are drowned out by the cascade of minutes that make up each day.

An example of the first: it occurred to me three days ago that I am no longer amazed by hot water showers. Every day I wake up and step into a never-ending waterfall of clean, hot water. I can stay in twenty minutes, and it doesn't even cool off. And I no longer marvel at this.

Just six months ago, if I wanted a shower, it was cold. If I wanted hot water, I heated it first, and poured it over myself one cupful at a time. The only time warm water came out of my shower was during the middle of a sweltering day, when I wanted the water to be cold. And you know what? I was thankful for that warm water, even when I didn't want it. I just enjoyed the fact that it was coming out warm, even though it didn't cool me off. And when I took those "showers" out of a bucket of hot water, I was incredibly thankful for the way it warmed me up. And when I took freezing cold showers on cold mornings because I didn't have time to heat a bucket, I truly appreciated the fact I had a shower at all. All the people I met in the slums bathed in public, covered in a wrap of sorts, by the community well. I had a shower.

When I came home, I was almost overwhelmed with joy every time I stepped in the shower. I laughed at how easy it was - just turn it on and get in. I loved it. And now... I'm back to my old self, I guess. I don't even think about what a privileged life I lead.

What brought on this sudden musing? This quote, taken from an ad in the most recent Reader's Digest:

"We believe that everyone has the right to a hot bath."

Really.

No! Hot showers are not a basic right; they are a blessing. I should marvel. I should be thankful. I should remember my friends who live such different lives, far away in a place where hot showers are for the elite. I wish there were a way to keep these things from fading away into distant memories. I can feel the fade beginning, and I resent it. I want to fight against it. But how?