Root Canal or Not, What are Friends For?

          I thought my dentist was a friend.  After all, my husband and I had often vacationed with them.  When they suffered a severe loss in their family, we were there for them every day.  Their older son even asked me to buy some toilet paper so they wouldn't have to bother.

          During my last tooth cleaning, I told my dentist about some sensitivity in one tooth.  He checked but found nothing wrong.  When the sensitivity grew worse, I went back and was told that there was servere decay in that tooth and that I "might" need a root canal. Before being permitted to schedule a follow-up visit,  I was told to sign a paper either agreeing to the root canal or refusing it.  I didn't like being forced to make that decision so I took the paper with me and went for a second and third opinion.        As it turned out, I did not need the root canal,  just a new crown after the decay had been removed.  My dentist performed the procedure as if it had been his idea in the first place.
       Unfortunately, the temporary crown fell out so I called my dentist who suggested I use denture paste to keep the temporary in place until his office opens again in 3 days.  He warned me that this paste may sting  and said I should remove the temporary crown every night.  
       If he were just a dentist and not a "friend," I would have accepted this.  Then he said that most patients don't want to "inconvenience" him for something so minor unless I told him it is an emergency. I always thought that friends are people you put yourself out for, even when it's inconvenient.  I said it's a discomfort, not an emergency and of course I didn't want to "inconvenience" him.   (His office is only a few miles away from his home.)

Do you think I need a new dentist?  

Write or Wrong?

I decided to give up writing this blog many months ago because I didn't think anyone was reading it.  But when my younger daught-in-law asked me about something I had written, I realized that I had at least one reader.  And then I sat back and realized how many blogs I read without writing a response.  

Also, what's wrong with writing for ourselves, even if no one else reads it?  

Too Busy for That

"What does your son do in Israel?" an acquaintance asked me a few days ago.
"He's a Talmudic scholar," I told her.
"You mean he sits at his kitchen table with a lot of books and reads all day to himself?"
"He studies at a kollel, a yeshiva for married guys.  He and his study partner learn together and debate any issue that comes up."
"Isn't he a little old to be spending all that time doing that? When's he going to share all that wisdom he's supposedly gathering?
"I'm really proud of him.  Judaism wouldn't be the vibrant religion it is today if it weren't for people like him."
Crossing her arms tightly across her chest, she said, "I think he's just selfish."
"Are your sons religious?" I asked, trying not to let her get to me.
"My sons are not the least bit religious."  She sounded proud.  "They're too busy for that."