The week before this past Christmas it became very apparent that I needed to visit the dentist … NOW.  I could not even think because one of my molars hurt so bad.  It was very terrible.  It had been hurting for a few days, but this particular morning nothing would help.  So I called the dentist who I had not visited in [cough] several years [cough] and began a saga which did not end until yesterday; five visits, two root canals, two crowns, one huge abscess and three rounds of antibiotic later.  Oh, plus a new mouth guard to wear at night because I clench.  I have clenched so much and for so long that I cracked those two molars and worn most of my teeth down to nubs.  This two month journey with the dentist has revealed quite a bit about my high maintenance self to me.

I’ve learned quite a bit about my dentist too.  The practice has undergone some changes in the years since I last visited.  And this dentist is new.  He is very gentle and calm and patient.  A real gem of a dentist.  When he asks questions, he really listens to my answers.  As a plus, he likes hockey, so we talk pucks sometimes.  So it was at this last visit that we ended up talking about the Olympics and hockey and who was playing for which team.  And curling.  And how English speakers mis-pronounce foreign names.  When he told me a bit of the story of his family’s immigration from Korea.  That his father had been in 7th grade during the Korean War.  His grandfather and great-grandfather had been politicians during the war and had been “taken.”  They were never heard from again; the family hopes they had an uneventful death.  His grandmother was left with six children to shepherd as far from the border/war zone as she could get.  The youngest died on her back during the journey.  His father and his uncle were separated from the main group at some point, but reunited later.  It all sounded very harrowing.  As war always is.

I asked him if his grandmother and great-uncle were still alive, but they have passed on.  But his father and  uncle remember.  I told him that we here in the States need to hear these stories.  It’s important for us to know that the Korean War didn’t look like M*A*S*H and it wasn’t about our involvement.  The United States has been involving ourselves in the wars of other nations for the past 60 years.  Sometimes we have had the sanction of the United Nations (Korea) other times we have not.  But the thing we’ve never done is seek out the stories of those who are directly affected.  Did it help?  What is needful?  What is needed now?

My dentist went on to say that his father has returned to China where it borders with North Korea on a mission with his church.  His report of poverty among the people was tragic.  In order to eat, they strip bark from trees and there are unsubstantiated reports of cannibalism.  Now … in the 21st century in a country pursuing nuclear weapons.  Which borders on a country that has nuclear weapons.

It is, I think, entirely possible that we could disarm the entire world if we just fed people good food and gave them fresh water to drink.