Awesome – I lured you in with my ridiculous blog title. Now let me explain so you don't think I'm throwing hygiene out the window until April 5. True, I won’t be showering in the Lenten season, but I will be changing the way I bathe.
I was in Liberia for 3 weeks in 2012 to facilitate an engineering summer camp for local high school students. Liberia is one of the most impoverished nations in the world, and you might imagine that folks there generally don’t have access to indoor plumbing. Ok, we did stay a few nights at a guest house in Monrovia which had gravity fed shower system, but most of the time, we bathed in the time honored tradition of bucket showers, and this is how most of the population stays clean.
The idea is simple. You fill a bucket, and that’s all the water you get to use for your bath. I was a bit apprehensive of the idea, but to my surprise, it’s really enough water to completely clean yourself! Taking bucket showers in my American shower stall is a fast that’s been on my mind literally since the day I got back from Liberia and took my first hot shower with running water.
Why would I do this for Lent?
I take indoor plumbing for granted. You too? This engineering marvel (maybe miracle?) delivers clean, temperature-throttled water by the simple turn of a knob. I use it every single day and rarely think once, let alone twice, about it. Though I will still fill my bucket using indoor plumbing and not pumping from a well a half mile away, I will have an opportunity to pause and appreciate it. I hope this can also be a way to be in solidarity with my friends in Liberia and other places in the world who don’t have access to running water.
I like the idea of conserving resources. According to USGS, showers can use water at the rate of 2.0-2.5 gallons per minute. My bucket is about 3 gallons, and I know there is no way I have ever showered in less than 2 minutes, which means I’m using a lot of water with a normal shower.
I want to connect with the elements. During the imposition of ashes today during Ash Wednesday Service, I was especially struck by the phrase “from the dust you came, and to the dust you will return.” I think it could also be argued (both theologically and scientifically) that “from the waters you came, and to the waters you will return.” For me, scooping water out of a bucket will be a deeper connection with that element than just submitting myself to the blast that comes from the shower head.
These are just the implications I can imagine now. I hope and pray that this affects and transforms me in ways that I can’t even begin to imagine. Fasting can do that, and taking time to invest in the Lenten journey can do that.
Best wishes and God's blessings on your journey to the cross and the empty tomb, however you plan to observe it. This day and all days, remember that from the dust you were formed, and to the dust you will return. Your life is fragile, precious, and important. But, you’re just a speck – don’t take yourself too seriously. I'll try to do the same.
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:1-2 NRSV
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