Why?

I went to the dentist the other day and it reminded me of how much I don’t like going to the dentist.  Well, do you??  It started early in life for me and it did seem strange that they would give me a sucker for having a cavity.  I guess they thought it was job security for them and it worked.  Almost all of my major teeth groups are filled.  I have no doubt it was those suckers they gave me laced with some cavity causing agent.

It was bad enough having a cavity but even worse was when your brother or sister didn't have one.  Why?  Why do I have the weak teeth and get to stay longer in the chair while they laugh and play next door?  I suspect a lot of people have thought life unfair when they compare!  Why did they get that package for a body and me this one?  Why do they look like model on the runway of life and I feel like a model T on a back road to nowhere?  Why do they stick out in all the right places and turn so many faces?  Why do I have this disease and they seem so at ease?  Why do I feel like my take home pay won’t get me home and they live at the mall?  Why can’t I run fast or think fast or work fast.  Why do I seem always to be last?  How come I am the born loser and they are so lucky?

Funny is it not that one of the things in life that makes the biggest difference I had nothing to do with.  One day you are born and you had nothing to do with it but then you have nothing to do with the family that takes you home nor the home they take you to.  They name you and then others do the same.  It all seems insane, how it works or doesn't.  You belong to more… or… less but you are where you are and everybody has to be somewhere.  Who of us has not thought…why could I not be born…to that family?  Why could I not have that privilege instead of this poverty of spirit?  Why couldn't I get all the breaks and be able to celebrate luck and lucky and even name my affluent dog after my fate.  Why do I have to live and think, them’s just the breaks, man!

Have you ever wondered any of these things and more and not so much for yourself but for others?  I wonder what it feels like to be red, yellow, or black since I have the white part covered.  Do black people want to be white?  If you were black would you want to be white?  Can we put ourselves in their shoes and do ours fit them at all? 

If life was fair we wouldn't have dentists or at least the hygienist wouldn't try to get you to talk with your mouth full.  They wouldn't ask crazy questions like how are you when you walk in the door either.  I always  say…I’m here aren't I…how do you think I am?  That gets the ball rolling down the hill quickly and we talk about what all we don’t like about life.  Well, at least she does.  I just amen her here and there…with some strange sound.

The other day she took that suction thing out of my mouth and I asked why people are born where they are and who they are and how that’s fair.  How is it fair that we get to live here and they in third world country?  Why do their kids starve for lack of food and ours overeat?  Why do we have so much and they so little?

God!  God she said!  God did it!  God decided before we were born all of that and so why ask why?  God decided that I was going to be born with weak teeth?  God decided I get to enjoy so much and they so little.  Don’t question the Bible she said…after all you’re a preacher.  You should know how things are and just accept them and you should be telling others to do the same. 

Listen…things are what they are.  It is what it is.  So…don’t ask why!  Just be thankful…God liked you more than them.  And when they say…life isn't fair…say…take it up with God!  After all He’s in charge!    

I would say more…but my time in the chair ended and I moved on to better things.