Stop me if this has ever happened to you (err, just keep reading).
There you are, going about your day — maybe you’re commuting to work, at your kid’s basketball practice or prepping dinner — when you check your phone and, BOOM!, like a bolt from the blue, you see the text or email: “Please confirm your upcoming dental appointment.”
What you’d scheduled so haphazardly back in February — 10 a.m. on a Tuesday, in July? Sure, why not? — is now here on a blazing hot summer day. And that’s when it hits you: A whole six months (that’s half a year, folks!) has flown right on by. Then that annoying question: What do you have to show for it?
That’s how it goes for me, at least. Maybe I’ve got problems.
But I can’t think of anything that speaks to the tyranny of time more than the dental chair, which I found myself occupying again last week.
Other markers of time are less of a gut punch — they’re slower burns with a lot more runway. The seasons run for three to four months (except for spring in South Bend, which runs from approximately May 28-June 1), and the school year is a nine-month deal (although minus holidays, sick days and teacher training days, it’s more like three-and-a-half). You’re living them every day, and the signs that they are winding down are gradual and familiar. But the dentist always catches me off guard, like a snake in the basement.
Oh, where did the time go?
Well, I’m here to suggest there’s no better place to ponder that question than at the dentist. Think about it. You can’t fiddle with your phone — no emails, no texts, no rabbit holes. No one is asking you for a snack or buzzing you on Slack. It’s just you, the dentist and whatever home improvement or baking competition show happens to be on the flatscreen. (Ignore that, though.)
As you settle in under your weighted blanket, all snug and cozy, this is an opportunity to close your eyes, think about the past six months, and ask yourself, “How am I doing?”
More than likely, you’ll realize that you’ve done an awful lot in between visits, even if you’ve just been going about your daily routine: kids’ sports, school projects, birthday parties, stomach bugs, holidays, family gatherings, lots and lots of trips to the grocery store. Or, like me, maybe you find that you need to make some changes.
Somewhere around the polishing of my bicuspids, I realized that although I was hustling more than ever before (thanks to four kids under 9, including twin 2-year-olds), I’d been going about it the wrong way; life’s chore treadmill, currently set to full sprint, had ground me down. For me and my family, I resolved to live with more levity.
After my routine cleaning, I made an appointment for my next check-up – 11 a.m. on a Friday, in February? Sure, why not?
That’s way off in the distance, barely a speck on the horizon. But days go by, and it’ll be here before I know it.
Zach Przystup (zprzystup@gmail.com) works for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Global Public Affairs. He is the author of the Substack “Ask Your Father,” where he writes about parenting and family life.
