Mama said there’d be days like this?

So….what do you think of this quote from Cheryl Strayed?

If someone is being unkind or petty or jealous or distant you don’t have to take it in. You don’t have to turn it into a big psychodrama about your worth. That behavior so often is not even about you. It’s about the person who is being unkind or jealous or distant or weird. If this were summed up on a bumper sticker, it would say: Don’t own other people’s crap. The world would be a better place if we all did that.

What if all the person needs is space?
A kind word?
A joke?
No-thing?

Don’t own other people’s crap.
What do you think of that?

A dental anthropologist has made a life studying mouths in Africa.
The Hazda foragers of Tanzania have no need for braces. Their mouths support an average of 20 back teeth in comparison to Westerners, who generally have a crowded total of 16.

The article, It’s not that your teeth are too big: your jaw is too small?, tells us that our soft food diet does not encourage our jaw bones to grow like our African counterparts.

Are extractions and braces the best way to solve our crooked choppers?
Will evolution change our descendants and put orthodontists out of business?

How interesting that we have the ability to study such things!

Not wanting to give anything away from season three of The Good Place, I’ll share just a snippet of thought….

Humans evolved from…

me versus us: I will sacrifice my freedom for the good of the group. Cooperative hunting, growing, and protection.

To…

us versus them: Our group against your group.

Aren’t you curious about what’s coming next?
Who is studying that?

And finally, I’m reading Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks by August Turak and this thought keeps playing in my mind…

This book—dare I say it—dogmatically insists that the purpose of every human life, whether we realize it or not, is to be transformed from a selfish into a selfless person.

A pretty tall order?
Perhaps, and I tell myself it’s what we’re evolving toward.

“About twelve hundred miles each way,” he said.

Since I’m a wiz at math, a round trip total of 2400 miles flashed across my brain along with Colorado, the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore…..mountain driving. A walker, bathroom stops, in and out of restaurants, and hotels.

What are they thinking???!!!!

When my 83 year old father told me he and his friend Jean were going on a road trip to visit Jean’s son in Colorado, my mind sped down the highway of negative what if thoughts.

That is until I gently stepped on the brakes to slow things down.

Dad has almost seventy years of driving experience. In his youth he hauled gravel and water-logged tucks loaded with cherries all over Door County. He’s pulled a fifth-wheel into Canada and through the hills and mountains of Nova Scotia. Many a walleye were caught by the man who drove in all kinds of weather to fish the lakes of North Dakota.

Where’s the trust—in Dad and the universe?
Would you rather he was in his recliner watching the anxiety news reel run without pause?

Heck no!

I did not sneeze one negative thought or expectation in the pair’s direction.
Within seconds, I was able to respond with genuine enthusiasm for their adventure.

I’ve received a number of calls from the road…and a few photos from Jean’s iPhone. Bonnie and Clyde, stealing youth, are having a grand time. Today they’ll visit Mount Rushmore as part of their return trip.

When I recently shared a quote with a friend….something about the most interesting thing being the thing you did not expect….Richard Feynman, I believe…the friend asked, “What if you didn’t expect?”

Indeed, what if?
I’m trying to suspend all (well, at least some) expectation, trading up for living in the now.

Care to join me?

You might be interested in this short video about the Theory of Induction.
I was.

The doctor and I stood in front of the panoramic x-ray.

Where once a healthy tooth stood fast and secure, I now have a titanium screw.

Did you know titanium is the only metal bone will heal around?

A hundred times a day I remind myself that my life depends on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give, in measure as I have received, and am still receiving. ~Albert Einstein

I’m grateful for the humans who discovered, and administer Novocaine. So thankful for the scientists who explored and found a solution for cracked teeth requiring extraction and replacement that does not involve a plate or bridge!

Granted, my life might not be much different with a gap in my smile, but I appreciate the work of Dr. Connors who painlessly pulled my premolar and screwed an implant into my bone. Months will tick by before the bone and screw become one, but when they do, I’ll get a new shiny tooth.

Lucky!

I was in and out of the office in 36 minutes. We humans can do amazing things.

(An aside…On Sunday night I noticed Henrietta has lost her two front top teeth. The new ones are already emerging.)

Anyhow, after the oral surgeon went over my post-op instructions I asked, “What about physical activity?”

“Keep it light today,” he replied.

The surgeon’s assistant walked me to the front desk. “When you asked about physical activity, were you thinking about yoga?” she asked.

“Yes!” I replied. “Tuesday is yoga class day. Why do you ask?”

“You look like a yogi,” she said.

I was wearing jeans and a blouse…not yoga pants and a tank…
I did breathe deeply while in the chair and held my calm despite lots of metal chatter.

“Don’t do yoga for a couple of days,” she advised. “Too much upside down business. I had contact with another patient who practiced yoga shortly after the surgery and she ended up with lots of throbbing pain.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice!” I replied. “No yoga until Saturday.”

Are we all signaling something, even if we don’t recognize it?
What do people’s reactions to you tell you about what you’re sending out?

Huh…that’s an odd topic for me to write about.

The only basketball I care about is flat. I kick the squishy sphere around the yard and Henrietta straddles the orange rubber with black lines.

I can almost hear her, “Haha! Mine—You can’t have it!”

What she really wants is for me to “steal” the ball and kick it again. A game.

This morning I read a story about Virginia coach Tony Bennett who turned down a raise, requesting that the money instead be used for staff raises and program improvements. The university’s president said the coach’s decision tells you everything you need to know about him as a leader and as a human being.

The only reason I clicked over to the article from The Daily Skimm is that the name Bennett was familiar.

Ahhh—of course.

Tony’s father is Dick Bennett—a legendary basketball coach in Wisconsin. He played at Ripon, went on to coach a number of high school and college teams, and took UW-Madison to the Final Four.

My husband always talks about him with a tone of respect.

I never really cared about basketball, but the man’s character caught my attention and left an impression.

It appears Dick’s apple Tony fell close to the tree.

Are these the types of stories we should be discussing at our dinner tables?
Does character driven behavior lead to more of it?