Lyft Drivers, Cold Showers and Life's Many Surprises

I spent a sizable amount of time in an Uber this morning. That means that I also spent a LOT of time making small talk with drivers.

Being socially awkward and moderately terrified of strangers, as well as people I know, and life in general, I am generally not big on small talk but you have to be a real piece of shit to ask a Lyft driver not to talk to you and I pride myself on not being a real piece of shit.

So even though part of me very much wanted to politely assert that I would like to listen to a podcast or work on a blog post I instead jibber-jabbered with a Lyft driver who seemed stranger and stranger by the minute.

This fellow was a “free thinker”, which is a nice way of saying that he posts irresponsible memes about masks and vaccines on Facebook and does extensive “research” on Youtube.

I definitely got the sense that if I let him, this man would be more than happy to discuss his very negative feelings involving masks, vaccines, lockdowns and Dr. Fauci.

Instead our chat went down a different, even stranger path.

The man said that he had recently stopped smoking marijuana. To fill the reefer-shaped and sized hole in his life and in his psyche he began taking cold showers.

That’s not the weird part. This gentleman didn’t take cold showers for the fun of it. No, he took freezing cold showers because various YouTube gurus have promoted the idea that cold showers have a seemingly limitless series of health benefits.

He told me that taking cold showers activates the nerve endings. They cured anxiety, depression and insomnia and made you smarter and more alert.

“Would you like to watch a Youtube video about cold showers? I love this guy. He knows EVERYTHING about cold water.” The man asked me. SOLELY to be nice I responded “Sure” unconvincingly.

As you might imagine, the cold shower evangelist on Youtube seemed like a crackpot rather than a pioneer. He seemed nuttier than a squirrel’s diet and crazier than a shit house rat.

Yet he had something that the Lyft driver desperately wanted even if he did not realize it at the time.

In his own strange way, the driver was a spiritual seeker and in the Gospel of Freezing Cold Showers he found something that made sense to him even if it seemed kooky to me.

Isn’t that what we all want? Meaning and purpose? Something to set us apart from the rest of the rabble?

The man also expressed an interest in longer, more involved forms of immersing himself in cold water for dubious health benefits. For this cold shower enthusiast, it wasn’t just a life hack: it was a way of life and, to me at least, a cult.

I thought about asking the driver if he’d heard of a character named Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin but he might have thought I was making fun of him and, needless to say, the quack science of freezing showers is NOTHING to laugh about.

Pre-order The Fractured Mirror, the Happy Place’s next book, a 600 page magnum opus about American films about American films, illustrated by the great Felipe Sobreiro over at https://the-fractured-mirror.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

The Joy of Trash, the Happy Place’s first non-"Weird Al” Yankovic-themed book is out! And it’s only 16.50, shipping, handling and taxes included, 30 bucks for two books, domestic only! 

Buy The Joy of Trash, The Weird Accordion to Al and the The Weird Accordion to Al in both paperback and hardcover and The Weird A-Coloring to Al and The Weird A-Coloring to Al: Colored-In Special Edition signed from me personally (recommended) over at https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop

Or you can buy The Joy of Trash here and The Weird A-Coloring to Al  here and The Weird Accordion to Al here

Help ensure a future for the Happy Place during an uncertain era AND get sweet merch by pledging to the site’s Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace We just added a bunch of new tiers and merchandise AND a second daily blog just for patrons! 

Alternately you can buy The Weird Accordion to Al, signed, for just 19.50, tax and shipping included, at the https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop or for more, unsigned, from Amazon here.

I make my living exclusively through book sales and Patreon so please support independent media and one man’s dream and kick in a shekel or two!