I oftentimes hear people state that they do their best thinking while in the shower. This claim has always interested me, because despite the diversity and variance amongst my peers and associates, the shower seems to be a universally accepted location of deep thought. Occasionally I’ll hear people say something along the lines of “It came to me while I was driving,” or “Last night, in bed, I was thinking so much I simply could not fall asleep,” but the vast majority of the people that I know all have the same location in mind when they think about where they think.
Why is this? I was (surprise!) in the shower when I began to consider this behavior, and what follows is my best guess:
In the world of today, we surround ourselves with as many people, as much noise, and the highest number of distractions we possibly can, and the shower just happens to be one of the few places we are ever alone with our thoughts. Humans are intellectually curious creatures, excelling in rational approaches as well as displaying a stunning capacity for abstract reasoning – our brains are designed to analyze and make attempts at comprehension of our surroundings; it is only natural that we think. Yet, from the moment we wake up in the morning until we collapse into bed for a brief repose before returning to our tightly scheduled routines the next day, we actively seek background noise that liberates us from thinking. Garrish morning show hosts read us headlines stolen from Farkas we drive to work or school – unless we tune to NPR, in which newscasters with smooth British accents share the inevitably depressing world events with us. Even at school or a job, with crowded hallways, busywork, or actual responsibilities, we are focused on some task at hand. Then, off to some sort of recreation: a movie, a concert, a club, somewhere with the volume cranked so loud we needn’t bother to do anything but process the sound.
And then, at home, where the bulk of television programming is actually incomprehensible if one does anything more than passively absorb the ‘entertainment.’
I would love to discuss this with someone else, but I believe that the trend I have mentioned is not the result of showering being a terribly ‘Zen’ experience, or that the harmonic pitter-patter of the water enhances cognitive function… I just think that most people have difficulty taking an iPod, television, laptop, or a host of friends into the bathtub with them. And as a result, not being in a place where we usually sleep, but still devoid of distractions, our brains wander more than we are used to.
I have decided that in 2008, though I have said this in other years as well, I am going to do my best to cut out more of the unnecessary from my life. I doubt it will be totally stream-lined, but at 17, 18, I don’t want a perfectly efficient life – where would I go from there? I will, however, do my best to read more than I watch television, write more than simply staring a blank page and scrolling through Youtube videos, and hopefully be able to look back a year from now and have measurable success in my goal.
On a completely different tangent, I am home from the beach and evermore thankful for those who mean the most to me. I realized earlier this week that while we are unable to pick our relatives, we can definitely choose who we consider our family. In the past few days I have done my best to be with close friends, people who I care more about than relatives I visit every few months in the farce that we call a holiday gathering. I don’t believe that naming names is necessary — thank you, however, for being there for me; I hope I can one day return the favor.
