Teach Your Teens The Zen of Dishwashing

“Water is the universal solvent” my seventh grade science teacher trumpeted with unmistakable reverence.

As with so many gems, this lesson is lost on young folks.

You have to reach the age of dishwashing, and more to the point, that pinnacle of cleansing responsibility when it’s your job to scour off baked on grease from pots and pans to appreciate the marvels of water.

Any veteran of Dish Wars can attest that it is no fun trying to remove encrusted salmon detritus from a broiling pan immediately after dinner. Letting the vessel settle overnight, with just a thin coating of soapy water will gently and silently do 99% of the work for you.

You’ll be astonished how angelic and gravity defying even the hardest sediment becomes under the quietly unrelenting persuasion of H2O.

But witnessing this transformation is a pleasure reserved only for the patient, the mature and the Zen-like among us. Teens cannot and will not wait long enough to watch nature take its steady, inexorable course.

They attack pans at the wrong time, wearing themselves out and sullying the entire kitchen in the process.

It’s sad to see strapping, 6 foot 4 inch boys, who could fell trees with dull axes, recoil from this duty and shout to the heavens, “I’m not Cinderella! Why are you making me do this?”

Another dishwashing insight that eludes teens is the fact that the machine is not a garbage disposal, and cannot be used as such, lest you want clogs in your piping that only drain doctors can remove with rooters.

Being the literalists they are, your sub-adults will wonder, “Why call it a DISHWASHER if I have to pre-scrub the dishes before I put them in?”

But this is just another Zen insight masquerading as a vexing absurdity, at least to a 16 year-old.

Why do we dress crisply and pretend to be well just before we visit the physician about our pesky colds? Isn’t it THEIR job to heal us, and not ours?

Of course, there’s a ton of Zen to be found in dishwashing, insights that could help teens and everyone else AWAKEN to deeper levels of living.

In fact, and you can announce this to your adolescents with true conviction:

DISHWASHING is the universal solvent!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a best-selling author of 12 books, including 101 THINGS PARENTS SHOULD KNOW BEFORE VOLUNTEERING TO COACH THEIR KIDS' SPORTS TEAMS. He has published more than 1,000 articles and considered "The Gold Standard" in negotiation, sales development, customer service, and telephone effectiveness. Top-rated as a speaker, seminar leader, and consultant, his clients extend across the globe and the organizational spectrum, from the Fortune 1000 to small businesses. He can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.