Day 3: FR(ACT)URED

Matthew 24: 42 Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

A few years ago, late one April night before a morning flight, I bit into a Pringle potato chip and my lower right molar fractured in half. I don’t mean chipped or cracked a bit. When I fished out what had broken off, it was half of my tooth.

I frantically called around for emergency appointments, and a brand new dentist’s office got me in at 6am. The tooth was rotten. I’d need a root canal. While she was examining and x-raying the fractured molar, she found three other teeth in desperate need of repair.

I hadn’t felt any pain.

I hadn’t noticed any sensitivity.

I hadn’t been aware, even in the slightest, that my teeth were rotting from the inside out.

So that late night pringle-induced rupture that led to the discovery of three more rotting and fractured teeth took me completely by surprise.

Three deep cavities. One root canal, two near-misses. Lots of drilling, lots of time in the dentist’s chair, and a LOT of non-insured dental bills later, and I made new covenants with myself to brush, floss, and invest in dental insurance.

How did I not know that my teeth were rotten?

How could I have let it get that bad before recognizing it?

How was it possible that my body was going toxic, fracturing from the inside out, and I had absolutely no idea it was happening?

How in the WORLD did it take a root-deep fracture, my tooth crumbling mid-crunch, before I realized what was true?

Literally right underneath my nose.

Literally rotting in my mouth.

That is how I feel about the world right now: disgusted by both the rotten reality and by my own inability to see what has been right in front of my eyes for as long as I’ve had them.