Tooth and Life
Life bestows vast knowledge. The image of life is the entire space. Life possesses the immeasurable depth of oceans, the illimitable height of heavens, and the infinite breadth of the universe. No wonder, life remains an undecipherable mystery. No doubt, the knowledge it brings is obscure.
However, despite the vagueness of life, it has myriad tiny lives within it. Lives that are considered distinct from one another, yet comparable in so many ways. These lives contain different sets of experiences. Experiences that yield alike lessons. Ironic it may sound, but similar lessons exist in different lives. The lessons in these lives, each presents a segment of the wholeness of life. A good instance is the ‘twisted tooth experience.’
There was a girl who wore braces for her twisted tooth to be aligned with the other teeth. People advised her to make a dentist pluck her twisted tooth, but her orthodontist instructed the dentist to remove few healthy teeth instead. With enough space to occupy, the twisted tooth was rotated and aligned with the other teeth. The orthodontist explained that if the twisted tooth was plucked, the part of the girl’s lip that covered the tooth would deform.
The lesson from this experience is that to solve a problem is not to get rid of the problem. The lesson is that to solve a problem is to deal with the problem, for if one simply gets rid of the problem, the problem worsens and results in another problem.
Problems exist not as a separate thing from other forms of life. Problems exist as a thing that connects the forms of life. A problem, which is a content of experience, leads to another experience. The response to the present experience shows the kind of the future experience one is going to undergo. The response to the present problem shows the kind of the future problem one is going to deal with or to get rid of.
To deal with a problem is to lose some good things, as to straighten a twisted tooth is to remove few healthy teeth. To get rid of a problem is to face a bigger problem, as to pluck a twisted tooth is to deform a lip.
This lesson mirrors life. Life is not all about the act of gaining. Life is an act both of weighing and choosing. Apparently, life offers two choices: the choice to get rid of the problem, and the choice to deal with the problem.
This lesson about problems suggests that each experience interlinks the multitudinous segments of life.
Tooth and Life
Ae Clane