Hawaii 2010

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Monday, July 20, 2009

God, Death, and Nitrous Oxide















I suppose there is nowhere that reminds us of our fallen world than the Dentist’s Office. We never want to go there. We have need to keep our teeth clean and to remove tooth decay, and to preserve the God given instruments that cut, grind and masticate our food.

The long, sad saga of R31 continued today. Years ago I had a root canal to save the tooth. Pain returned and I had a second root canal done by a specialist. Next the tooth cracked, and in February I said goodbye to my damaged friend and had it pulled. We enjoyed many steaks, and even my share of beef jerky, good ole R31 and I. Into the craters of that double rooted tooth went Bovine bone material which over the last few months formed new bone surface. Is this cloning? I wonder…..moo!!!!

Today, Dr. Braegger, my friend and Dentist for the last 18 years, placed a titanium implant into said bone surface. I was deeply under the influence of Laughing Gas, so I told his lovely assistant when I returned to this world that it felt like they were driving a mack truck around inside my mouth with all the jerking and torquing and drilling going on.

I never miss an opportunity to experience Nitrous Oxide. Several years ago I noticed that during the experience my brain would seize upon the ultimate answer to all the problems of the universe and I knew when I came to my senses I could write a book and save the world….but I could never grasp just what insight I had when I stopped the gas. I did a bit of Googling and found out what a popular recreational drug this was in previous generations because of the hallucinogenic effects of this gas.

The remarkable part of the experience for me is the level of consciousness I seem to reach. I can hear Dr. Braegger talking, and he is a talker. Today he was describing the cherry mantle he was assembling for his home fireplace. I can respond to commands, like “don’t close your mouth, its full of metal thingies”. But my body and brain are so fogged in, that I am trying to talk to God.

Thank you Lord, this is so relaxing…..give me some insight, let me see your face. And…..please do not think I am being irreverent, I think this is what leaving the body, physical death might feel like. The conscious you begins to feel separate from the body that served you so well, you can’t move, but somehow you know you are going to be safe and secure through this transition to a new dimentsion. Each deep breath takes me deeper into that other world……then I am back, and the Doc is describing the months ahead, before I get a shiny new R31 not human tooth to finish out my life with.

Thank you to my adult life dentists, all whom I appreciate although I don't want to go see you. Thank to Dr. Jimmy Little, Dr.Wayne Atkinson, Dr. Stephen Fetzik, and Dr. Micheal Braegger. I never wanted to come see you, but you repaired the damage, root out the decay, and make my teeth good as new. Thank you Nitrous Oxide for helping me get through the drilling, I am glad you are not legal, I could get hooked on you.
Thank you Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are repairing the damage to my soul, rooting out the decay of my sin, and making me into a new creation, fit for the ages to come.

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