Toothworks and Stoneworks

Should I just have settled for the Toothless Old Crone look?  Time will tell I suppose.  I hope I did not embark on this implant project out of vanity - though after 2 years of seeing myself on Zoom cameras its hard to find anything to be vain about.  Because if so it would all serve me right I guess.  But I think it was more that I want to avoid having any more detachable bits if possible. I already spend one half of my life searching for my specs, and the other half searching for my hearing aids. Where am I going to find the time to be looking for my teeth as well?  

Some good news anyway - my physio appointment on Friday was cancelled and moved to March. No Gym lesson!  Hurray.  Though I must add that my young physio is really lovely, kind and patient, nothing like the Gym teachers of old.

The Dental Surgeon was an hour late getting to the appointment on Wednesday - he has to drive up from Kent - so I was getting more and more anxious during the long wait, and my poor dentist had to leave his client in the chair and come out and calm me down and persuade me to stay. And I am grateful he did, as it is now nearly all done - hopefully - assuming it heals properly this time.  It hurt a lot Wednesday night - a lot - which it did not last time, which worried me a bit, but it all seems fine now, just a slight ache, which is encouraging.

Talking of engineering projects, there is a new one about now, which involves knocking down statues of people who are politically out of favour. They were once clearly very in favour (or there would not be statues of them), but they are now "baddies" where they were once "goodies" and down they must come.  

The sight of a mob taking them down is scary as it is only too easy to imagine what could happen to a living person who became similarly targeted. Also it looks dangerous from a health and safety angle. These are chunks of stone, crashing down from a great height into a crowd.

I am glad no-one was hurt at this latest one:. "A man has climbed on to the front of the BBC’s Broadcasting House headquarters and used a hammer to damage a prominent statue by Eric Gill, as another man shouted about the artist’s history of paedophilia."

This looked very dangerous and the Police are being criticised for standing by, but i don't think I can blame them, as the law has just ruled that you may tear down statues if you have a sincere objection to them. Which the article does admit:

"The damage to the BBC artwork comes shortly after a jury cleared four individuals of criminal damage after they removed a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston from its plinth in Bristol and dumped it in the city’s harbour. They successfully argued that they had been making a sincere protest against the Colston statue, were exercising their right to free speech, and insisted it was a criminal offence to keep that statue up because it was offensive."

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/jan/12/man-uses-hammer-to-attack-statue-on-front-of-bbc-broadcasting-house

How do I feel about Slave traders and Eric Gill?  And would I want to put up a statue of them or by them?  Well, no.  Never.  But the problem with every statue ever erected - including of those who are goodies at the moment - is that they are all of (or by) very flawed and imperfect human beings.  We are all the damaged, dying children of disobedient Adam, all born missing the mark of perfection, through no fault of our own.  None of us are flawless heroes, worthy of a statue.

And maybe the Eric Gill statue should stand there as a red flag warning, as wasn't the BBC the home of Jimmy Saville?   It could justly signal: Be wary of the product of this organisation.

For me the best statues are those lovely giant Arabic coffee pots that used to brighten up the traffic islands of the Middle East.  My favourite Arabic statue of all was at the Pearl Roundabout in Bahrain, where a magnificent pearl was mounted on slender spirals of concrete.

Sadly that too was torn down - for political reason - by the Bahraini Government, who seemed to feel it had become a focus for minority group protests.  So maybe we should just give up the whole business of statuary, but let the existing ones stand, as they do on the whole signal that human history since the loss of Eden has been a tragedy.

They will all go when Jehovah removes every vestige of the current wicked system of things from the earth.  Wouldn't the best and safest thing be to leave it up to Him?