How do we make warm water? We combine hot and cold. This happens in the faucet. It happens also in the shower head. I zoom in on the scale and wonder if the water molecules themselves are actually changing in temperature or if the sensation of warm water is an illusion brought on by the quickly alternating contact of cold and hot water molecules with our epidermis. Quickly is an understatement. Something on the order of 1,000,000 molecules per millisecond, or more, coming into contact with a skin cell. If this is the way it happens, and the individual water molecules aren’t themselves warm, then the situation resembles that of moving pictures, 16 frames per second makes us think we’re watching movement. Likewise, here, the only way our brain can make sense of the sensory overload is to convince itself that all of the water is warm and is not in fact a combination of molecules which are vastly different in temperature. Like many of my posts in the past, this one is born out of fear. I fear the damage that might be dealt to our helpless epidermis every time we shower or wash hands. Our skin cells know the truth, and they are forced to withstand the onslaught of dual temperature moisture, despite our mind’s capability of transforming the truth into something easier to deal with.