I'm starting to get things together to pack.
As the departure date draws closer and closer, the reality of the trip begins to set in, along with a certain level of nervous excitement. I wouldn't necessarily call it anxiety, but along those lines.
I am about 2/3 done with Café Europa. I just finished reading a chapter about toothpaste. The author brings up the point that Americans see dental hygiene as a status symbol; she refers to an American woman she met who just had her son fitted with braces. Indeed, the woman proudly discussed the cost of the braces, and although the son was in pain, he knew that it was just a rite of passage for him, like all the other boys at his private school. It seemed outlandish to her that someone would put such a torturous device in their child's mouth, if not a little vain and narcissistic. She goes on to explain that in Eastern Europe, the condition of one's teeth is a highly personal matter, and only after she returned from the States to Croatia did she begin to notice how bad people's teeth were in her country. Visits to the dentist are free there, and children are apparently educated on how to maintain good oral health (brush with the one brand of toothpaste available, see your dentist if you spot holes or have pains), yet people see dental hygiene as a low priority, not particularly important. Is it because we have to pay for dentists that we can appreciate the value of good oral health? Or, as a capitalist society, are we so caught up with our appearances and our class that oral health is simply an aggrandized fixation with wealth, social status, even power? Can you remember the last time you saw a Western leader with bad teeth? A TV reporter? An actor?
Maybe it's because Eastern Europeans are so impoverished that they can accurately gauge their priorities, based on need and survival rather than vanity or desire. To an extent, their must be some validity to the issue of dental health there ... after all, teeth are fairly resilient. This is not to say that the state of one's teeth isn't important, simply that our priorities are a little skewed. I suppose that's just the product of a capitalist society. What else do you spend your money on when you have so much of it?
Final thought: simple is not simplistic. There is great depth and complexity in simple.
As the departure date draws closer and closer, the reality of the trip begins to set in, along with a certain level of nervous excitement. I wouldn't necessarily call it anxiety, but along those lines.
I am about 2/3 done with Café Europa. I just finished reading a chapter about toothpaste. The author brings up the point that Americans see dental hygiene as a status symbol; she refers to an American woman she met who just had her son fitted with braces. Indeed, the woman proudly discussed the cost of the braces, and although the son was in pain, he knew that it was just a rite of passage for him, like all the other boys at his private school. It seemed outlandish to her that someone would put such a torturous device in their child's mouth, if not a little vain and narcissistic. She goes on to explain that in Eastern Europe, the condition of one's teeth is a highly personal matter, and only after she returned from the States to Croatia did she begin to notice how bad people's teeth were in her country. Visits to the dentist are free there, and children are apparently educated on how to maintain good oral health (brush with the one brand of toothpaste available, see your dentist if you spot holes or have pains), yet people see dental hygiene as a low priority, not particularly important. Is it because we have to pay for dentists that we can appreciate the value of good oral health? Or, as a capitalist society, are we so caught up with our appearances and our class that oral health is simply an aggrandized fixation with wealth, social status, even power? Can you remember the last time you saw a Western leader with bad teeth? A TV reporter? An actor?
Maybe it's because Eastern Europeans are so impoverished that they can accurately gauge their priorities, based on need and survival rather than vanity or desire. To an extent, their must be some validity to the issue of dental health there ... after all, teeth are fairly resilient. This is not to say that the state of one's teeth isn't important, simply that our priorities are a little skewed. I suppose that's just the product of a capitalist society. What else do you spend your money on when you have so much of it?
Final thought: simple is not simplistic. There is great depth and complexity in simple.
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