Hi Matt,

Yeah, the guy in the mirror is of course actually, in reality, me. Absolutely. But he’s not the me I should be and I struggle with that.

I can get super specific on this point.

I grew up in a backwater with a bad local dentist and a mother that wasn’t paying attention, and so I have three teeth missing from my mouth. Teeth that were entirely healthy when they were pulled, that were removed because “my mouth didn’t have room for them” (at the age of 10 or so, when I hadn’t even stopped growing yet!), and that more than likely, I’ll never get back (more than likely, because growing new teeth is an active area of research in dentistry at the moment!).

The me that I should be, is the one that had been looked after properly. One where my mother actually engaged her brain once in a while (she was actually a very knowledgeable woman, a biology teacher), and when the dentist made that suggestion, she could have noticed that it really wasn’t in my best interest and that I would have to live the rest of my life without those teeth.

The person I should be, is the one that was cared for properly. The person I’m left with, is the one who is the sum of all of his and his parent’s mistakes and that’s what I see when I look in the mirror. It doesn’t pain me particularly. It is what it is. It makes me slightly angry from time to time though. 🙁

Kaz