Dipsie-Doodle

This is from an essay I wrote today. The essay is about Lake George, New York and it was for my American Environmental History class.

I took a bath in Lake George this summer.  After running 5 miles through Silver Bay and its smaller neighbor, Arcady Bay, I celebrated with a well-deserved dipsie-doodle.  This is a term coined by my Uncle Nick, a successful marketing executive, who bought a vacation home on the waters of Lake George in 2000.  The renowned Lemma’s Complete Family Dictionarydefines dipsie-doodle as the following:

dipsie-doodle (noun)

dip•sie doo•dle / ‘dip-sē dü-dᵊl /

Definition of dipsie-doodle (noun):

a brief reconnaissance with spiritual waters of nature—lasting a few moments to fifteen minutes; typically associated with feelings of euphoria, bliss, serenity, and accomplishment.  As many as 10 dipsie-doodles may be taken in a summer day.

Usage of dipsie-doodle (noun):

Nick: “I’ll be right back. I’m going to take a dipsie-doodle!”
Kathleen: “Not without me, you’re not—you stinker!”

And that is a dipsie-doodle.

Lake Bath

I’m staying in Lake George this weekend with my extended family. We all love each other. They live right on the lake, and today I chose to take a bath in the water instead of taking a shower. I washed my body with Trader Joe’s honey-oatmeal soap and I washed off my spirit with the waters of Lake George, thousands of years old and rich in history.

How many people have cleaned themselves in these waters? Who were they and who did they love? Why do I still believe that I’m more important than they were?

We are the keepers and writers of history. Our days become stories too rich to recite again. We choose what we remember and always forget the uncomfortable.

How can we make ours a story worth remembering?