The Bar Soap Ritual
I have a strange ritual...
And I am almost embarrassed to tell you about it.
It involves bar soap.
Not body wash.
Bar soap.
But stay with me, because this starts as a goofy confession and ends as something I think we all do, whether we admit it or not.
I love soap in a way that feels excessive.
I love the idea that the world is chaotic and dirty and unpredictable, but we have this small daily miracle where we get to wash it off and start over.
Like a reset button.
Like a tiny sanitary baptism without the ceremony.
Somewhere along the way, my wife Cori started buying me these “man soaps.”
Pine.
Bourbon barrel.
Cracked ice.
Forest after rain.
I love the scents.
And that is when the ritual got serious.
I assigned every season a soap.
Winter.
Spring.
Summer.
Fall.
I refuse to use the wrong season’s scent. I will not do it.
And when the bar gets down to a tiny sliver, about the size of my pinky, I know the moment has arrived.
The ritual begins.
As the seasons change, I take that last little piece of soap and stand over the sink like I am holding something meaningful.
Then I drop it down the drain and run hot water until it melts away.
Goodbye, soap.
Then I open the new bar, slowly, like unboxing something sacred.
I am not exaggerating when I say it sometimes feels like monks changing a relic in a monastery somewhere.
Then I lift the new bar of soap up like it is holy.
The sun coming through the bathroom window.
Light hitting the soap like it is a stained glass moment.
A new scent.
A new chapter.
Now, does anyone do this?
No.
Yes, it is ridiculous.
But is it not human too?
Is it not just ritual?
Rituals keep us grounded. They help us remember who we are when everything keeps changing.
So even if you have your own weird little ritual, you are not weird.
You are human.
And next time you see a bar of soap in a store, remember me and this little story you read.
📖 Stories in a Snap is a weekly series of short, written stories by Aaron Calafato, adapted directly from his award-winning 7 Minute Stories Podcast. Each piece begins as a story told out loud and is reshaped for the page, so you can read it in just a few minutes.
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