Showering Daily, and Killing Things

A TYPICAL DAY, including a three mile run, a shower, and work. After work, maybe some crack cocaine and a little soft porn...just kidding. Those three to five miles runs, however, just don't come as easy as they once did. The next day, and its obvious from the git go; no work out today. Nothing wrong with a well timed day off from ye olde fitness regimen, or two...or three...As the exercise free day comes to an end, it occurs to me that I have not yet showered, but since I have not worked out, I have not perspired. So I fall asleep without taking a shower. Even as I snooze, a vague sense of guilt pervades my dreams; I have committed a sin against American values, I have gone an entire day without showering or bathing. And yet, I stink not, and nobody I pass on the street seems terribly or even noticeably offended the following day. I passed an entire day without full body hygiene, and lived to tell (smell) about it. Honestly, I do not remember ever having gone shower free for a day before, and it felt strange, psychologically. However, by the time twenty four hours had elapsed, I was ready to clean up. You can only push things so far. Squeaky clean once again, I had to marvel at what a big deal it was to refrain from bathing for only a single day. As if a major disruption to normalcy had ocurred. Is it true that Americans are the only people in the world who insist, as a rule, on bathing daily? I seem to remember being told this. I do recall a history professor telling me that while staying at a hotel in France, he and his fellow American tourists were admonished by the hotel manager to not shower every day; it was a waste of perfectly good French water, and besides, nobody in France showers daily. Its bad for the perfume and wine industries. I also remember being told that in every crowded elevator n Europe, there is the pungent aroma of body odor, and nobody seems to care. do Americans secretly sneak off and showere daily while touring Europe, and if so, at what risk? One thing for sure, you won't, as a general rule, smell human beings in an Aelevator in America. No sir. You'll smell nothing. We kill all microorganisms, and all body oder in the United States. That aint the only thing we kill, but for now, its enough. Saving water is all well and good, and showering less often is probably healthier, but I prefer squeaky cleanliness, just like my squeaky clean countrymen.