Baths and Dreams

Singing in the shower encourages the realization that we can sing. The echo and the mirrors magnify what needs to be magnified; the sound of running water diminishes what needs to be diminished; and we close our eyes, because of the powerful feelings. When the shower is over, the perception ceases. We open the door and go about our lives in a cloud of steam, looking like a wet dog, as if we've just dreamed a beautiful dream.

There are similarities between singing in the shower and what happens in a dream. The main one is that there are usually no people around. But it's not the only one: like a dream, singing in the shower can be the expression of a desire; it can be the symptom of a thought we never remember having; and it can consist of trying something we wouldn't normally do. Perhaps the benefits of singing in the shower are like the benefits of dreams; and perhaps even vice versa.

The most important consequence of bathing in contemporary societies is not cleanliness or the normalization of odors. These two effects are positive externalities caused by the individual use of the bathroom; and this use leads us to believe in our musical talents. But the most important consequence of bathing is that it requires the use of the bathroom. It is this use that allows us to cultivate perceptions in peace, and for limited periods of time.

We are taught to give little importance to what happens without witnesses; but what happens without witnesses does not stop happening. There is a connection between singing in the bath without witnesses and a decent society. The infallible signs of indecent societies are the belief in collective dreams and the practice of communal bathing; and the worst collective dreams emerge from communal bathing, as in sports, camping, and antiquity.

The locker room is the oldest form of political indecency. It's a gonad without doors or windows, where groups of passersby praise their collective achievements and plan to achieve collective feats. In a locker room, everyone meddles in the lives of the other people in the locker room. Its political opposite is the bathroom. The bathroom offers the opportunity to express talents that don't depend on third-party recognition.

People rarely fall asleep in the bathroom; but dreaming doesn't require sleep. As necessary as sleep is, its usefulness doesn't depend on the occurrence of images or desires. The only requirement for dreaming is the most important requirement of a decent society: that there aren't always witnesses to what happens to us; and that our perceptions of ourselves matter somewhat, albeit for limited periods. There's therefore no reason why one shouldn't dream aloud in the shower.