It’s been said
that friends make the good times better, the bad times more bearable, and in my
humble opinion, the weird times funnier.
My best friend (and roommate) has proven this point to me over and over
again. As I was getting ready for
bed last night a sinking feeling overwhelmed me as I realized I had taken out
my retainer, put it in a paper towel, and then placed it on the kitchen
counter. (Why I thought it was a
good idea to remove my retainer in the kitchen is a mystery to me. I probably wasn’t thinking clearly at 6
in the morning.) I vaguely
remembered clearing off the kitchen counter sometime in the afternoon, and most
likely that clearing included the paper-towel-wrapped piece of plastic tooth preservation.
After about 4
minutes of panicking, my better half and best friend calmly told me that we
were going to get on our shoes, put on coats, go out to the trash bin sitting
on the side of the street, and dig through to find my retainer (which was
recently replaced from being thrown away and lost last year). We walked outside into the typical
Oregon monsoon, opened the big green lid, and pulled out the most recent bag of
household kitchen trash. It was
quite the scene, complete with Ziploc bags on our hands as “gloves.”
We dug through
the rotten turkey meat, the pesto covered noodles, the eggshells, the soggy
paper towels, the glops of yogurt, and other such trashy items. As disgusting as this all was, I
couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness.
Just as I was losing
hope, I found a wadded up paper towel slightly resembling the roof of my
mouth. Retainer obtained.
As thrilled as I
was to have my retainer back, I was highly disappointed in finding out via
google that no, I could not dishwash, bleach, or boil my now more than slightly
germy tooth preserver.
But regardless,
I fell asleep laughing. And I
couldn’t help but think that I most likely would have just left my retainer for
the garbage man if I hadn’t had the encouragement of a good friend to choose
the better route and dig through the trash. Isn’t that really what friends do? They help us dig through the trash. Sometimes that comes in the form of
being the one who’s there when the chips are down. Sometimes that comes in the form of being the one to confront
you when no one else will. Or
sometimes it just literally means digging through the trash to find a lost
retainer.
I am reminded of
this in Ecclesiastes, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return
for their work; if one falls down, his friend can help pick him up. But
pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up.” (4:9-10)
I am thankful
for those friends who help me up.
Or help me dig through the trash for a retainer in an Oregon
monsoon.
