Have you ever awoken with the thought, "Wow. My son has such nice teeth. I'm so blessed that I don't have to get braces for him. His smile is so bright and his teeth are so straight. How wonderful this is." Have you ever woken with this thought?Neither have I.
Houdin ran into the house last night after playing at the neighbors' house and made a quick visit to the bathroom. Then he ran up to me and threw his mouth open, proudly uttering, "'ook! 'ook!" He's too old to be losing teeth, so I had to peer closely. But there it was. A chip. On his top front tooth.
"What on earth...?"
"We were tossing the basketball back and forth to each other, and Monet had it, and I tried to get it from him, and..."
"Oh, son..."
"Did you see this one?" He asked, pointing to the bottom front tooth. Oh, Lord. Another chip. And the top tooth was loose.
"Oh, son. Why did you do that? Why did you chip your teeth? You have such a *nice* smile. You have such *nice* teeth. What would make you want to go and chip them?"
"I didn't mean to, Mom. So, he had the ball and I..."
"Son, your TEETH are the same TEETH you'll have with you for the rest of your LIFE. Why would you do that? Why would you chip your nice, perfect teeth?"
"Mom, do you think I meant to do it? So I tried to get the ball and..."
I didn't really hear the rest. All I could see was the chips in his perfect teeth, like the tiny scratch on a brand-new vehicle. All I could do was shuffle around the kitchen shaking my head and muttering, "They were such nice teeth. Why wasn't I grateful for them before? Maybe that's it...Maybe I wasn't thankful enough...Oh, his lovely teeth. Oh, the inhumanity!"
If your son has beautiful teeth, count your blessings. Then again, maybe you just shouldn't think about it. It might not hurt so much when he ruins them. For life.
Oh, the pain. The pain. What a world, what a world.
