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2006-09-06 - 7:14 p.m.

I went to the dentist yesterday, something which wouldn't ordinarily be worth writing about, but this visit garnered some observations about people and what is going on the world.

First I had to have x-rays, and the dental assistant who gets you set up in the chair and does the x-rays is great to talk with. Naturally, she asked me how my summer was going and I had to tell her that the vacation ends Monday. The mention of a vacation always causes the question, "Oh, did you go anywhere?", to which my answer was, "This time, I hardly even left my apartment building." There are two things people say when you reveal that you didn't travel anywhere for your vacation: (1) Oh, so instead, you had a very RELAXING vacation, and (2) At least you didn't have to FLY anywhere.

I don't know if it has always been this way, but these days, travelling is considered to be anything but relaxing, and having to fly is downright repellant.

Actually, I didn't stay home this vacation because I wanted to relax. I could have relaxed just as well, or maybe even better, on a beach in Belize. It isn't necessary to always fill a vacation up with non-stop activity; it just depends upon what a person wants. And if you go back to a place that you really liked, you can narrow your activities down instead of having to do every possible thing. I even know of people who take cruises a lot, and all they do on the cruise is relax on a deck chair and eat their meals. They don't gamble or spend all night dancing or visit each and every bar. They don't even get off the ship to go on the excursions. They just enjoy the sun, the movement of the ship, the peacefulness of the waves, and not having to do a single thing.

I stayed home because I had a lot of stuff I wanted to do at home and there wasn't any place I really wanted to go this time. Also, I just didn't feel like spending the money.

About the only trip I had seriously contemplated was going to England to visit a friend, but that didn't really excite me all that much, so I didn't do it. But I suppose one could say with some accuracy that I "almost" went to England, and if I had done so, it ends up it would have been right in the middle of this whole latest terrorist scare.

The mention of that possibility left the dental assistant staring at me with wide, fearful eyes, as if I had come THIS close to incalculable danger. Like, something was really looking out for me! She told me that she was so scared of a terrorist attack on an airplane; whereas as for me, I was thankful that I was spared all the hassle and misery of the airport.

I'm not really all that afraid of terrorists, although I don't know if that means that terrorists are really a very small danger, or that the government is doing such a good job of foiling their attacks. Certainly I'm aware that there ARE terrorist attacks in the world, and events that occurred in the United States and Europe are real events, regardless of who and what were really behind them. And I have read some material that is quite convincing that terrorist attacks HAVE been foiled. There are people very, very busy doing their jobs, tracking down leads, and preventing tragedies--very "James Bond" stuff.

But, regarding this latest scare in England, though, the jury seems to be more on the side of that whole thing being a propaganda ruse on the part of the current governments to help stop the free-fall in Tony Blair's and George Bush's political ratings (particularly Tony Blair's, in that there were some articles I read that talked about how Prince Charles was going to set in motion a political action to get Blair removed from office); a further example of trying to manipulate the populace through fear. So it was surprising for me to be talking with somebody who really, truly, felt that fear, whereas all I had been thinking about was how thankful I was I hadn't had to wait in line for several hours and have to go on board a plane without any carry-on luggage.

This carry-on luggage issue: in the former days of airplane hijacking in which hijackers would break into a cockpit and force the pilots to divert the planes to Cuba or elsewhere, the task of the other passengers on board, who had been made into hostages, was to not attract any undue attention from the hijackers and get themselves killed as examples. Sometimes hostages have been trapped aboard a plane for several days. The best course for such a hostage is to sit quietly and not cause any trouble or make any waves, their only obvious moves being getting up and going to the bathroom when they needed to, which hijackers would let them do.

Studies have apparently shown that passengers who were able to keep themselves clean, and particularly if they could BRUSH THEIR TEETH, were the ones most likely to remain alive. There is something about how when a person hasn't been able to brush his or her teeth for several days that they begin to get a lttle bit crazy and angry. So ultimately the formula boiled down to "couldn't brush your teeth, you ended up dead."

It's kind of strange, but I can't even SLEEP if I haven't brushed my teeth. And I learned on an occasion when due to a huge blizzard I was trapped in a house in the mountains for seven days without electricity, water, or telephone, I could manage to stand to remain unbathed no longer than three days. On that third day, I absolutely had to take a bath, and managed to do so with three inches of melted snow in my bathtub. That I was willing to do that, that I NEEDED to, shows you the strength of this force.

So I can buy this theory on how bringing grooming supplies onboard an airplane can be a life-saving action.

But now with current protection-from-hijacker procedures, you CAN'T bring on any grooming supplies.

It's ironic how things shake down. I'm just glad I was spared having to deal with any of that.

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