Dental work (A musing)

In the bliss of youth I thought I knew pain. I figured I lived in a complete world, confident in who I was, where I was going, and my past. But In the same way that things look uglier up close, as I got older certainties melted. I noticed the cracks in my perspective and the broken world. When I was young I couldn’t imagine another sphere than the one I occupied. I guess I still can’t. But at least I can still have an inkling that it’s there. I’m not certain if I romanticize my past. I know the world did not become crueler in the time it took me to notice the cracks. It’s not time that ages us, it’s experience and perspective. Age is by definition the wears of time. The bite marks from life chewing on people and spitting them out. The molar marks on our brains, the canine prints in our personalities. Makes you wonder who’s the dentist?