Int, 8th Grade Geography Class, Day
“Hey, mon, you studying Africa Mon?”
“Yeah, but if we’re studying Africa, why are you talking with a Jamaican accent?”
“It’s not Jamaican. It’s Moronic. I’m from Morocco”
“Oh, it’s moronic alright.”
By 8th grade, I was completely tired of school and growing distant from my friends. I had always feared that when I was away from them that they plotted against me. That one day I’d show up and things would be different between us, and that day came after I returned from my month long trip to Israel.
I had arrived at the home of one of my friends and convinced them to play some basketball. An older boy who didn’t care for me said, “Ben, why don’t you go home? No one wants you here.” And I responded, “That’s just what you think and what you think doesn’t matter…because you’re a dirt bag.” He didn’t say anything and instead let his fists do the talking all over my face. My so-called friends stood and watched as a received a terrible beating.
I walked home, in tears, realized I had chipped teeth, and decided that changes had to be made in my life. With all the free time I’d have now that I had lost all but two friends, I started exercising to lose weight, read more books, started writing, and applied to a vocational high school, which is where I spent the next four years of my life. So, that punch in the mouth was the impetus for great things in my life. Everyone needs a punch in the mouth sometime in their life in one way or another, and I’m glad mine came so early in life.
The punch in the mouth also meant I’d have to get my teeth bonded, which was insanely painful. And, to make the situation worse, I could smell the teeth as they were being drilled into. A few years later, the bonding came off and I had to relive the ordeal. A year later, when I bit on a fork and had to have my bonding re-done yet again, I decided that enough was enough and underwent the process again but with anesthesia. Why didn’t I ask before? Or, better yet, why wasn’t it offered to me? I had been thinking for years, “This is why everyone hates the dentist! It’s excruciatingly painful.”
Int, Dentist’s office, Day
“Why didn’t you give me anesthesia during my last visit?”
“You didn’t ask. You know, I guess you could say that life is a trip to the dentist and that sometimes it gets so tough that you need to ask for anesthesia, the love, religion, puppy, or whatever else that gets you through hard times. I guess you could also say that that metaphor is a metaphor for life, which, similar to the metaphor, is comparable to many different things, making something as abstract as life, financial independence, or the idea of a metaphor, easier to understand. And, like life, the purpose of a metaphor is subjective. Perhaps the metaphor is there to fulfill a special purpose or maybe it’s there simply to be. Similar life, this metaphor has a creator, myself. I have the power to create or destroy, provide relief or cause distress. I am in control!”
” That’s invalid reasoning!”
“I’ll make an invalid out of you!”
“You’re mad!”
“I’m not mad; I’m a dentist!”
