accidental feminist

it’s all about me; even Nathaniel Hawthorne September 12, 2006

To illustrate a point on the power of guilt and embarassment to keep one from being honest while discussing “Roger Malvin’s Burial”, I told my students about the time that I was at the dentist and he asked me “how often do you brush your teeth?” Thinking he was being hypothetical, and wanted to ansewr correctly, I said “Three.” He seemed shocked and pleased. “How do you do that?” heasked incredulously. At this point I sort of realized, as far as my conciousness would let me, that I had just decieved him, but not wanted to have to go back and explain it, I remembered Kevin, the super nerd of the school, and how he brought his toothbrush in his lunchbox. “You bring it in your lunchbox,” I said, being sure to use the same hypothetical second-person that I knew he was using at the start (never mind that my “lunch box” was a used plastic Jewel bag with one torn handle). With that, he opened his drawer and took out a “Cavity Buster” sticker and handed it to me. I wore it like a badge of shame; but I wore it.