I first encountered Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap when I was in college. I don't think I ever actually used it, but somebody on my floor had a bottle and we all marveled at the label, with its dense text of random religious thoughts.
I'm not sure when I started buying the soap, but I know that a bottle of it was what I took with me to Africa in 1998, reasoning that I could use it as soap, shampoo, and laundry detergent. It worked quite well as all of those, but I never had the nerve to brush my teeth with it, as the label suggested. I still routinely take it with me when I travel and it's what I routinely use at home to do hand laundry. It's also what's in the penguin shaped soap dispenser in the guest bathroom.
So I was interested when Robert emailed me a blurb from the Washington Post about "Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox," a movie being shown tonight as part of the Washington Jewish Film Festival. The description was interesting and I do like documentaries, so I went to see it.
The movie is really as much about Bronner's son, Ralph, as about Emmanuel Bronner himself. Ralph Bronner goes around the country telling stories about his father and giving out soap and hugs. He wasn't at the screening, but did send along a batch of bumper stickers (reading "Coexist" with the symbols of several major religions) which were handed out to the audience.
The film is worth seeing. The footage of Bronner does nothing to dispel the impression one gets from reading the soap labels. Namely, that he was interesting but nuts. Ralph comes across as eccentric, too, but in a more positive way. The sad part is that Bronner's children, Ralph included, suffered for their father's vision, which had less to do with soap than with his religious mania. It may be hard to argue, but I think caring for one's children probably is more important than "uniting Spaceship Earth."
The woman who introduced the film said we would laugh, maybe cry, and definitely be infuriated. True.
I have a vacation coming up. I really should buy another bottle of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap.
Copyright 2007 Miriam H. Nadel