An email this week from my friend Paul reminded me that I have yet to blog about the silly, sweet, and inspiring documentary Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox. I saw it a few weeks ago at Paul’s place; he is the founder of an amazing online shop of all kinds of beautiful and sustainable things (go there directly after you finish reading this and check it out: branchhome.com), and has been hosting a docu movie night at his apartment for years. It used to be just pizza and beer, now his lovely wife Janeen makes cobbler. Yum.
But before tasty summer desserts get me off track, I want to tell you about this film.
First, for those of you who don’t know this soap, for me, the smell of Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Soap in Peppermint always reminds me of backpacking trips with my family. It was our go-to soap when camping because its all-natural composition made it less damaging to lakes and streams (of course, now they say don’t use any soap at all when you’re in the wilderness, but this was the ’80s). My husband and I now use Magic Soap for a number of its 18-in-1 uses: for washing dishes, to clean floors, etc. Hubs even showers with the almond version.
Now if you don’t camp and aren’t a crunchy type (the documentary was, after all, an official selection at the Mill Valley and Seattle film festivals, not Cannes), you may only know the soap by its crazy label, which is large and literally covered with quotes and advice from Dr. Bronner himself (check out their website for a humorous mad scientist photo of him). He used his business to promote his ideas of unity—look for “All-One” anywhere on the package—and something he called the Moral ABCs, a belief system based loosely on the writings of Thomas Paine and… a bunch of other stuff.
OK, he was a bit of a nut (there is a priceless scene in which he rattles on about his philosophies, while another women is being interviewed in the foreground), but he made some darn good soap. And the sweetest part is that his family is still running the company, making the soap, and all along has done some truly heroic things for the natural personal care industry, namely inventing the first plastic bottle that is 100% post consumer recycled, and using all organic and fair-trade ingredients. All-one, indeed.
I saw the movie too and I thought it was adorable! Yeah, you're right – a littttttle eccentric but a great film overall.