Growing up in park slope is wildly different, from say growing up orphaned in a village in southern Uganda. Although us true Park Slope residents are ridiculed mercilessly by the outside world about our Food-Coop, our private, selective preschools and our viscous, competitive, spiteful mommies. Yet, part the air of pretentious, self-centered malcontent, and you find a lovely thriving community of families, who are damn well happy about any thousand dollar dentist practice.
I don't often read my mother's articles, she has worked for major news corporations all over the world and is maddeningly good at her job. But yet I found some heart in an extensive project on the massive turnout for a free medical and dental clinic in southwest Virginia. More than 1,800 volunteer doctors, dentists, nurses and assistants collectively worked on the small town In the Appalachian Mountains, setting up enormous field-hospital-style tents in which they saw 2,500 patients over two and a half days in late July of 2008.
When you see a young woman begging, pleading with the doctors to take all of her teeth even the healthy ones out, because she she knows they will just get infected again, it's awful. Beyond cavities, the doctors deal with people with such badly infected gums they have to take out pieces of the jaw bone. Splinters of rotten teeth in the gums, fleshy sensitive nerves exposed.
More than painful to watch, its the desperate people trudging on that is so devastating. They camp for days to get the only medical care they can, the free clinic's annual trip down to the ravaged southern Virginia.I can't imagine the pain of waiting for days with an infected jaw bone, mouth tumors or rotten splintered teeth. The poor souls up in the mountains also give us a little bit of hope to grasp, horrifying fearful hope for their sakes to get to the end of the line, over the hill and into the white, beckoning tents of the clinic.
But what's in a tooth you may ask, a tooth is not like a fingernail or a strand of hair. No a tooth is a bit more permanent, they have been in your mouth for decades, chewed every meal felt every clink, grind and chatter. It a part of you and therefore it becomes so not immediately but overtime , this silly little piece of calcified enamel and nerve, now has personal attachment to your life and your shared experiences. This little tooth is you and will always be
So for every tooth yanked, splintered, rotting inside, and for every infected gum and jaw we can only sigh as the little part of us if savagely twisted and wrenched out and send it on it;s way as a separate entity entirely.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Let me just start with a few words
Let me just start with a few words about last week's assignment. I love, love, love my darling commenters even when some of the comments were above and beyond the post itself ah, anyway, Thank you Izzy, Audrey, Sammy, The Futtermans (collectively Annie) and Max. And I might just have to write a paragraph about you each to make up for your wonderful blogs I have so not not been commenting on. Love- Pia
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Dedicated to Audrey, Annie and
As Busy as James Franco by Anne Futterman
During grueling 15 minutes of battle between me and the control key I hung my head in defeat, as I toggled between tabs, angrily re-typing my links in to the boxes, I had time to think about one blog post and one in particular My favorite thing about Annie's posts is that they are so creative and she is not afraid to write about non-fiction or put what ever she is thinking into her blog. This particular one was my favorite because she started talking about James Franco of all celebrities and all he has (or is trying to) accomplish. But then she moves into much more weighty and thoughtful writing towards the end about how we perceive famous people as more accomplished and interesting because they are good-looking and well known, it's preposterous that we allow them to parade around acting like they own everything is sight and there are countless more unrecognized and downplayed heros of the working class, who suffer through everyday life and a whole lot more. She makes thought provoking statements about our society all with sharp wit, a threateningly expansive vocabulary and a knack for rants and thought pools of all kinds.
All Hail Oskar Schell, Daddy Come Home by Audrey Bachman
It's really a shame that I don't comment Audrey's blogs enough. One of my favorite things about her writing is what a great voice she has. She expressed deep, deep thoughts and emotions in the post about Extremely loud and Incredibly Close as if she had experienced them herself. Talking about Oskar searching for more than the a lock to fit the mysterious key, but a new father to love him more than the adults in his life who always tip-toe around him. She has vivid description and small fragments of her personal life a lot of the time to bring us in to the story. Audrey writes passionately and you can tell each and every blog post is real, most of the real and vivid blog posts I have come across are almost painful, rambling on about plastic spoons or other strange fixations. But in Audrey's writing we can take refuge and really explore the meaning or the books she blogs about or the beauty of reading out-loud, she really has the gift of story telling. Her blog posts are neat and crisp each paragraph perfectly formatted each sentence deeply analyzed, she often writes about childhood and analyzes personalities. What I also love is she always keeps the mood light but she goes into such detail and complexity of a story or a person that you feel not just up lifted or wistful, but nostalgic. And it's that earnest writing that I have been longing for the thought provoking innocent blog posts always leave me with a sense of wonder and i always look forward to reading them great job Audrey and thank you.
Omnivoracious- Daphne Kalotay reviews Stalina
One of the things I liked about this blog post was optimistic. It was bright engaging and cheery which isn't always what I specifically look for in a blog post but for the story it fit well. Stalina, the book is about a russian-jewish girl who immigrates to the United States during the nineties and her assimilation into the new culture with both spunk and grace. The author again had a very nice voice, and the sentences were fluid, which really makes a good blog post. One of my favorite things about it was it was such a personal blog post Daphne Kalotay's vocabulary was perfect her history sharp but in the end it was the author's personality which showed through, her casual praise and recounting the novel with just a little bit of re-tell. It was lovely and I would love to get my hands on a copy of the book.
During grueling 15 minutes of battle between me and the control key I hung my head in defeat, as I toggled between tabs, angrily re-typing my links in to the boxes, I had time to think about one blog post and one in particular My favorite thing about Annie's posts is that they are so creative and she is not afraid to write about non-fiction or put what ever she is thinking into her blog. This particular one was my favorite because she started talking about James Franco of all celebrities and all he has (or is trying to) accomplish. But then she moves into much more weighty and thoughtful writing towards the end about how we perceive famous people as more accomplished and interesting because they are good-looking and well known, it's preposterous that we allow them to parade around acting like they own everything is sight and there are countless more unrecognized and downplayed heros of the working class, who suffer through everyday life and a whole lot more. She makes thought provoking statements about our society all with sharp wit, a threateningly expansive vocabulary and a knack for rants and thought pools of all kinds.
All Hail Oskar Schell, Daddy Come Home by Audrey Bachman
It's really a shame that I don't comment Audrey's blogs enough. One of my favorite things about her writing is what a great voice she has. She expressed deep, deep thoughts and emotions in the post about Extremely loud and Incredibly Close as if she had experienced them herself. Talking about Oskar searching for more than the a lock to fit the mysterious key, but a new father to love him more than the adults in his life who always tip-toe around him. She has vivid description and small fragments of her personal life a lot of the time to bring us in to the story. Audrey writes passionately and you can tell each and every blog post is real, most of the real and vivid blog posts I have come across are almost painful, rambling on about plastic spoons or other strange fixations. But in Audrey's writing we can take refuge and really explore the meaning or the books she blogs about or the beauty of reading out-loud, she really has the gift of story telling. Her blog posts are neat and crisp each paragraph perfectly formatted each sentence deeply analyzed, she often writes about childhood and analyzes personalities. What I also love is she always keeps the mood light but she goes into such detail and complexity of a story or a person that you feel not just up lifted or wistful, but nostalgic. And it's that earnest writing that I have been longing for the thought provoking innocent blog posts always leave me with a sense of wonder and i always look forward to reading them great job Audrey and thank you.
Omnivoracious- Daphne Kalotay reviews Stalina
One of the things I liked about this blog post was optimistic. It was bright engaging and cheery which isn't always what I specifically look for in a blog post but for the story it fit well. Stalina, the book is about a russian-jewish girl who immigrates to the United States during the nineties and her assimilation into the new culture with both spunk and grace. The author again had a very nice voice, and the sentences were fluid, which really makes a good blog post. One of my favorite things about it was it was such a personal blog post Daphne Kalotay's vocabulary was perfect her history sharp but in the end it was the author's personality which showed through, her casual praise and recounting the novel with just a little bit of re-tell. It was lovely and I would love to get my hands on a copy of the book.
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