one of the great experiences in life — an outdoor shower.

when was the last time you took an outdoor shower?

what makes it so special?

for me it is being under the sky whether it be during the day or in the night.

it is being exposed to the elements, no matter what they may be. heat, cold, sun, rain, wind.

it is the excitement that comes with the contrast between the outside elements, whatever they may be, with the warmth of the hot shower, or the coolness of a cold shower.

in short, for me showering outside is a rush. it wakes me up.  it gets me going.  I love it.

why don’t more people do it? why don’t more homes and residences have one?

and what does someone do who lives in an apartment building? say, in New York City?

my answer to that is where there is a will, there is a way. if you want one bad enough, you can figure out a way to do it.  let’s brainstorm the situation for a person living in a New York City apartment building.  I can think of two options.  one, the roof.  maybe there is a common area on the roof.  an area that has water access.  many roofs in NYC have plants that need water.  get the super of the building to construct a shower up there.

the other option is outside on the sidewalk. every building has water available on the outside of their building.  they use the water to hose down the sidewalk every day.  why not bring your own hose and attach it to the building’s water spout.  on the other end of your hose would be a shower head, the kind that you can pick up at any Bed, Bath and Beyond store.  the trick here will be how to hang the hose at the shower head so that you can stand underneath it with both hands free.  one answer to that would be to ask the super to install a hook on the outside wall that you could use.  if that is not possible, my next idea would be to use duck tape.  will duck tape adhere to a brick facade?  or a stone one?  will it be strong enough to hold a hose with water gushing from it?

if the duck tape idea won’t work, what else could we do? i am thinking that you could construct a make shift frame that would lean against the building and hold up the shower head.  two hockey sticks, placed in an inverted “Y” form should do the trick.  i am assuming that we would tie the two hockey sticks together at the butt ends of the sticks with duck tape.  the other ends of the hockey sticks, the blades, will have to “dig into” the cement sidewalk to create some friction to keep the hockey sticks against the wall of the building.

there is no question that this “creation” of an outdoor shower on the sidewalks of New York is a challenge. what i love about it is that to try this — a makeshift, portable outdoor shower on the sidewalks of New York — is so New York.

imagine the reaction of people walking by on the sidewalk, as you take off your bathrobe, drop it on the sidewalk. then put your soap, shampoo, shaving cream, and razor on the ground to be used during your shower.  then you turn the water on.  you stand under the temporary outdoor shower in your bathing suit.  New Yorkers will not be phased in the least.  they will take this in stride.

oh, oh. I just thought of a problem.  the outdoor water spigot does not have a hot and cold water capability.  all the water will be cold water.  oh no.  this is a real problem.  yikes.  what are we going to do?

as creative as I am, I am running out of ideas. I need some help.  can someone give me a solution to this problem?

now, I realize that there are more important issues that need resolution in the world — such as education reform, disaster preparedness and recovery, poverty and homelessness, preparing our young people for the jobs of the future, peace in the trouble spots in the world, to name a few.

nevertheless, I believe that you build your capacity to solve big issues by solving little ones first.  by solving a little issue, you gain the confidence to solve bigger issues.  you create a momentum to take on the tougher issues.

so, folks, let’s rally here. let’s come up with a creative solution to this problem of how to take an outdoor shower on the sidewalks of New York.

i am confident, knowing my readership, that several creative solutions will come forward. thanks for helping to solve this small, but not insignificant problem.