Dentistry: a necessary evil?

I had the misfortune to find myself in a dentist's chair before the sun had even made an appearance. I had four cavities to fill, 3 of which were not new, but were some of the fillings I got last spring that needed to be replaced.

My dentist cheerfully said how envious he was that I was lying comfortably in a reclining chair. I think my polite smile in response was slightly less than convincing. A few minutes later when that grating drill started up I found myself trying in vain to distract myself. You know how dentists all have movies to play on the screens above those chairs? The distraction of the movie is supposed to make the time go faster. I suppose it's meant to ease the sometime extreme discomfort of having your teeth literally being drilled out of your head. I think most of the time, the dentist assistant's head was blocking the screen entirely. Ugh... I try to be stoic about the unpleasant realities of life. Dentist appointments are a stretch.

But, I had to smile when Caleb came in to me later today with a spare clipboard I'd left lying around.
"Can I have this clipboard, Mom?" he asked with unexpected eagerness.
"What would you do with it?"
"I would put a piece of paper on it and draw pictures," he replied. Of course. What else are clipboards for?
"Sure, sweetheart."
I smiled when he went away with an enthusiastic, "Oooohh!" And he spent the afternoon filling up a page with his pictures on his clipboard. He toted it with him as we ran our errands, and proudly displayed it to everyone who came to the house. I leave you to ponder the simple pleasures that a clipboard can offer.

Goodnight and Good Luck, dear Reader,
The Professor's Wife