The Billiken's Bluff

He went to the gym this morning for the first time. Not his first time to the gym, but the first time in the morning, before work. He was going to shower at the gym. He packed. He brought a small hand towel that he normally brings. He forgot the standard-sized towel for after the shower.



He worked out. He sweated. He finished and showered. He was able to dry off with a hand towel no bigger than a sheet of paper. Completely dry, not partially. 8 1/2" x 11" or thereabouts. No larger. This works, he thinks. This seems to be a minor revelation of some kind. You can do the same with less, or nothing at all. The Matrix, there is no spoon. Here is a thought you don't even need a towel to dry.

There is a certain intelligence to this. Some of the logic that fuels innovation, and other stuff you might see in commericials for IBM or Mastercard or that old BASF commericial, "we don't make the things you buy, we make the things you buy better".



This must be how iPods keep shrinking, computers get smaller and faster and more powerful. Someone said a computer doesn't have to be the size of a small strip mall. And it went from there. Constant refinement, tweaking, working towards zero waste.



He sees this by understanding that you don't need a towel to be five feet long and three feet wide. It can be if you like, but it doesn't have to be.

In Cambodia a checkered scarf doubles as a blanket, triples as a skirt, and quadruples and so forth as a bath towel, head wrap, militia mask, a baby carriage, a sling. This can be done.










Not sanitary, not ideal maybe, but possible. You can use a wash cloth as a towel.

It's like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, or teaching a man to fish and feeding him for a lifetime. Conservation of movement, trimming off the fat, the excess, streamlined, and aero-dynamic.

I, I mean he, will go back to the gym again, but probably with a standard towel. Learning a lot retaining, implementing almost nothing.