Broken Tooth…

This is not my tooth, but I did this once too - it's a molar this time...

You know I like to talk about broken things - look at these two posts (Broken Turtles and Broken Seagulls) and you’ll see two of my more popular blogs. I don’t always like the broken things, but I do like to talk about them. 

I broke my tooth about a week ago and some thoughts came to mind…

I thought that you could break most any substance with a tooth, other than another tooth? Or was that a diamond…?

Just how soft has my tooth become that it just crumbled up in my mouth?

Why did this happen right before I had a big event that wouldn't allow me time to get to a dentist to fix it?

Why would eating a simple starburst candy completely destroy half of my tooth?

What are Starburst made of, anyway?

Is there a “How it’s made” on breaking teeth? Or would that be “How it’s broken?”

Do I even like Starburst candies?

I think hindsight is not always 20-20, but it’s often better than our first looks and thoughts as we do something. We get an idea in mind and we move forward with that idea thinking it will all go perfect and then when it doesn’t, we sit back and wonder and we realize the error in our ways, after the fact.

Why can’t we realize the errors ahead of time...before we break a tooth, a leg, say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing?

I have a couple thoughts on that...probably learned by my failures over the years.

We think our ideas are always right. 

We don’t think ahead clearly.

We don’t see the flaw in our ways. We think that our thinking is the correct thinking and we move forward with our ideas without counsel, without anyone giving us some of their past wisdom, or without truly thinking ahead to the consequences. We don’t want to humble ourselves to ask for advice and we don’t want to admit we can be wrong, ever. It’s wrong human nature, but we all deal with it, all too often.

I see this in teens a lot and I struggle with trying to help them. I have learned that certain paths in life will lead to trouble, but as I share that with a teen, they think I’m crazy and their ideas are fine. They also think that the consequences never actually arrive and that they can handle those consequences with simplicity. It’s narrow thinking, but I did it and so did most of us that are not now teens. We forget that we struggled then, too.

This post is a little bit of a ramble, but my points are these:

1. Don’t forget to think through what you do.
2. Don’t forget to seek counsel on big decisions (eating Starburst wouldn't qualify, but my Dentist would have told me “No!”)
3. Don’t give up on others that have made a bad decision or decisions, because they need help just like you did and do.

Lessons Learned: We make foolish choices in life some times and we deal with the consequences.

Thoughts: Have you ever broken a tooth? Have you made some bad choices and learned from them?

#failalot