It
sits in the shower.
Actually,
showers, since I have a bottle in both of our bathrooms. They
are those extra-large bottles that come with the built-in pump-dispenser.
And that means I don’t have to pick it up every time I need shampoo.
Which, in turn, brings us to the general thoughts floating around
in this story.
For
whatever reason, I’m convinced that if I never pay attention to
the bottle of shampoo, it never emtpies. It’s like some automatically
refilling, never exhausted supply of shampoo readily available
for me.
This
thought first occurred to me when I was cleaning the bathroom
one day and paused when I got to the shower and tub. I spotted
the bottle, and on this particular day for whatever reason, it
struck me that I couldn’t remember the last time I bought shampoo.
No clue why I thought about it, but I did. I gave it way too much
thought, and the best I could come up with was a purchase some
sixteen months or longer in the past.
Sixteen
months. Outrageous. Borderline impossible. I even asked Terry
to see if she could recall buying any. But it’s what happened
next that really stayed with me.
I
lifted up the bottle, and it was close to empty. And that’s where
we come to the completely untested, not really a theory because
it’s unproven, consideration about shampoo bottles without end.
Have
you ever suddenly become aware of something you needed to replace,
but not because you needed it?
(Stay
with me.)
I’m
not talking about running out of mustard and suffering without
it for your hot dog. Nor am I talking about making a shopping
list, opening the fridge to check things out and finding you need
eggs and orange juice. What I mean is something you don’t regularly
give any attention, but somehow when you do is exactly when you
needed to spot it. Whenever that moment is, random as it may be,
that’s when you check and that’s when you need it.
For
some reason, I’ve managed to become convinced that as long as
I don’t pay attention to the shampoo or toothpaste or so on, I
won’t run out. Only when I do wonder if I need it do I find myself
running low.
Friend
of mine counters this theory. He says it’s actually the law of
replacement at work. His scenario involves a bar of soap next
to the sink. You find you need to replace the bar of soap, go
to the closet or wherever you store the backups, and find you’re
running out. So, you add it to the shopping list and replace it,
and as a result have a constant supply.
There
was a bit more to it, as we discussed things like bottles of water
and such, and he almost had me once or twice. But the reality
I kept arriving at was his argument was flawed. He was replacing
things that had run out, not never running out until he looked
for it.
This
morning my wife and I headed for the kitchen to make breakfast.
She grabbed the milk for some cereal, had just enough for her
bowl, and wandered over to my shopping list. I had taken out some
half and half for her tea and my hot chocolate, and realized I
never paid much attention to the container of half and half.
Any
day we had cereal, or used the milk for something, we could see
the contents of the plastic container. Plenty of milk… plenty
of milk… until eventually the expiration date passed or we reached
the point of adding it to a shopping list. But not the half and
half. We don’t use much of it, since coffee and tea and hot cocoa
aren’t every day items, nor are we using large amounts of half
and half when we do need it. Container is a carton, so you can’t
easily see inside. You almost have to notice it. Very similar
to the shampoo scenario.
Unfortunately,
I can’t really test anything to prove the theory. Paying attention
to it would invalidate any experiments of the hypothesis. Hard
to design a conscious test for unconscious scenarios.
Once
I was actually paying attention to the shampoo and it seemed to
only last a month or two. Not even close to explaining the sixteen-plus
months. But it does tend to fascinate me from time to time. Though
I’m not sure if my wife would appreciate my trying to notice things
even less often than I already do.