The Benefits of Living With Others

This morning, after I got out of a shower, I wanted to put some muscle rub on my back. The stuff I have is in a container similar to a twist-up deodorant- so you don’t have to get it on your hands. My husband had already left for work and there I was in the bathroom trying to figure out how to get this stuff on my back by myself.

There is a portion of my back I can reach with no problem. These are not the parts that hurt. The section of my back in need of relief sits in a spot just out of reach for me. No matter how I bent my arm and twisted my fingers, it was impossible for me to hold the muscle rub in a way that it would reach this spot. Normally, I would have my husband help me out, but without him here, how am I to manage? How do others, who live alone, manage tasks such as this?

In my head, I was concocting an elaborate setup that involved attaching the muscle rub stick to the wall, so I could stand against it and just move up and down and side to side in order to get the coverage I needed. I thought about wedging it in the back of the couch cushions, or going out to the studio and putting it a vice attached to the work table. Instead, I decided on suffering. I will just be sore until 5:30 when my husband gets home to help.

There are times when I see others who live alone and think how nice that would be—to not have anyone around and a home to yourself. Today, I am very happy that I live with someone who is willing to put muscle rub on my back and reach things on shelves so I don’t have to use a stepstool. There should be a service where you can go online to find someone to come by your house to help you with these things. Okay, probably not. That sounds pretty creepy now that I think it through. Perhaps there is such a thing—there are so many things out there that don’t fall into my everyday knowledge of the Internet and human behavior.

In the meantime, live aloners, know that I see you.