A Nice Hot Bath

I ordered some bath salts from one of our vendors. They are smartly packaged with bath or water related sayings, as in "A woman is like a teabag, you don't know her true strength til she gets in hot water." I chose five or six different quotes that I liked. Another was: "There might be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them." When these arrived at the store I saw each quote had its author listed beneath in small print. It was interesting to find that the teabag quote came from Eleanor Roosevelt. The second quote was by - Sylvia Plath. I just couldn't make sense of this. The first thing I think of when I think of Sylvia Plath is her struggle with depression and tragic death by her own hand. So the first thing I thought when I read the quote knowing it was hers was: well .. she definitely found something a hot bath couldn't cure. I couldn't bring myself to put her bath salts on display. Too incongruous and weird. I decided to call the company and explain my dilemma. "Has anyone else mentioned this to you?" I asked, after explaining my problem to a customer service person. Silence. "Uh, no, no one has mentioned it," she replied. "Who was Sylvia Plath, anyway?" I thought of the Bell Jar; the searing books of poetry. I tried to explain. "It's fine if you want to return them for credit,' she said. She had no idea what I was talking about. Return them I did. When it comes to inspiration about going on in tough times, I'll stick with Eleanor.