For a culture supposedly focused on inner beauty and peace, we do care a lot about the way we look. After all, looking at inner beauty and ascertaining the extent of peace the person in front of you feels is much more difficult than looking at the hot chick (a.k.a. person in front of you) and surrendering control to nature's hormones. And we very well know that nature follows its pre-defined script.
Most successful meetings run thus: The eyes will establish contact, lips will separate to reveal a beautiful smile . . . and the rest will be left to destiny. . .
And the script runs on . . .
Therefore the all important question that one should ask oneself is this: Am I ready for destiny?
I too asked myself this question. Unfortunately, I chose to burden my mind with this question just when I was in front of a mirror. And that has led me to the current pain that I experience as I type out this post.
But I reveal too much too soon. Wait for it.
The prima facie answer the mirror gave me was the famous 'All is well'. Eyes (aided by enormously thick glasses) were fine. The long beard I had cultivated on a 40 day long road trip was gone and I had lost 4 kilos. So far so good! And then I tried my smile. . .
There are different ways to smile. There is the polite 'I-don't-know-why-I-am-smiling-but-I-have-learned-that-it-is-polite-to-do-so-and-you-expect-me-to-smile-so here-goes kind of smile. Then there is the seductive, lips half parted, come hither smile. All actors in B/Hollywood are accomplished masters of this smile. Then there is the confident smile, shy smile, sad smile, joyful smile and so on. . .
The smile I tried on that day was the E-smile. No, the 'E' does not refer to electronic. Nor is it, I assure you, a prefix suggested by a marketing expert to increase readership of this blog. I call it the E-smile, simply because it is impossible to produce this smile without pronouncing the alphabet E. And I went 'Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee'.
That was when I noticed. My teeth were stained yellow. All those days and nights of coffees and teas had left their mark: indelible at least to the tooth brush and paste I used. And worse, there was a cavity. Yes, this required a trip.
Most people think uncharitably of their dentists. I don't. They are nice people. Learned. Wise. Always smiling. Even their offices are decorated with posters of people with happy smiles. Beautiful smiles. Beautiful lips . . . beautiful girl . . . er - the contents of the posters will be described in detail in a separate blog post. Coming back to the point, dentists are the sort of people you'd be proud to call friends. Until they don their face masks and gloves.
Mine was no exception. A warm smile inspired trust and confidence. But soon his real character emerged. Gone was the warm smile, now hidden behind a white mask. His hands now held instruments of cold steel, capable of many many thousands of RPM. All pointed in the direction of my mouth.
People often seek to understand the true meaning of trust and faith. And so they go to their pastors and priests. Pastors will point to their Churches while Priests will gesture to their temples. I submit that real trust and faith is learned only when you sit in a dentist's chair. Your mouth wide open, eyes shut, your hands folded and you wait. For deliverance. I see no other reasons apart from trust and faith as to why you would willingly let another person poke, drill, pull, stitch and mess around in your mouth.
I had a wisdom tooth extracted yesterday. I am happy to say it went off well. I now have clean teeth that I can proudly reveal when I smile. Even the E-smile.
The road to destiny does run through the dentist's office.
Till next time.
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