Beauty

[just bee]

I just got out of the shower and now I know why I ordered those six shower gels last week. I assumed it was because I had a virus and my body was telling me I needed vitamin C – STAT! Why else would I order all those fruity flavors? Well, now I know.

Scent triggers memories (and that reminds me -- I should be studying for tomorrow’s Anatomy and Physiology final, NOT taking a trip down Memory Lane!)

I’ve always suspected this product line has been more psychology than philosophy. The old photos, the feel-good scents… you know what I’m talking about.

I got into the shower with beach girl and immediately smelled the orange sherbet push up that I used to get at the corner drugstore on Sheridan Road in Chicago when I was a kid.

Another trigger: It’s holiday time. My little Italian mother has put out big bowls of nuts, tangerines, kumquats, and persimmons.

Another trigger: Picking apricots with my mother in the orchards south of San Francisco before the birth of Silicon Valley.

Another: Mom’s Ambrosia salad: marshmallows, coconut, mandarin orange and pineapple.

She would have turned eighty-seven yesterday. All the orders that had me baffled this month suddenly make perfect sense. Now I know why I chose those shower gels. And why I bought four pairs of red shoes (a whole nuther Mom story).

The clouds always clear for me in the shower. Explains why I have 26 shower gels.

So I guess my question is:

What is the philosophy product that triggers that most special memory for you?