Filling time

Sometimes, life's coincidences are a little scary. Late last week we lost a filling in one of our molars. Today, one of the most delightful days of Summer this year, we spent at the dentist. In fact, we were surprised she's even speaking to us, it's been so long since we last visited. During the four or five days between the loss of a filling and and the replacement / repair of that filling, we have been extremely grateful that we were not suffering an aching tooth due to the missing filling. (We haven't written about this before because we didn't want to jinx ourselves.)

As we were killing filling time before heading to the dentist this morning, we read a few more pages of one of our latest book acquisitions intended to lead to self-improvement. [see below] That's when we encountered ENJOYING YOUR NONTOOTHACHE.

Here's the critical excerpt, for those not currently suffering a toothache: "If my tooth hurt, this is exactly what I'd be wishing for. I'd believe that I would be so happy if only my tooth felt okay." The fact that we read exactly this page with precisely these words under our current circumstances suggests quite strongly to us that we had best give the reading of and exercises in the book our utmost attention. We, along with many of you we suspect, have been letting the times and the customs diminish our humanity and we don't like that. Time to do something about it, something like learning to be grateful for lots that we take for granted.

When we were older and knew everything we needed to know, like sometime last week, we might have needed to have the proverbial brick wall fall on us. But, as Dylan wrote in My Back Pages:

Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

The coincidence of enjoying a non-toothache experience that might well have been otherwise, and then reading we should learn to appreciate what is working and enjoyable in our lives is our metaphorical brick wall for this week. Let's now assume we succeed in attaining a necessary degree of youthfulness to enjoy as much as we can of each moment we have. That's when we turn to Dylan's wish from parents for their children. Imagine how much nicer the world would be and how much happier our lives would be if we could all remain

Forever Young

Written by: Bob Dylan

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young

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