I don’t know where this week has gone. For the most part, though it went to the dentist, packing, and getting around town seeing friends and finishing up work. I still haven’t finished it all yet…I am trying!
Today I went to the dentist. I first went last Friday for my checkup after staying up most of the night studying Torah at something called “tikkun layl”. We stayed up all night with the students and different staff members (mostly my fellow fellows) led sessions. I led a session with one of my green friendly students called “The Gesher Nesher (the eagle bridge – a foot bridge on campus): Judaism and Environmentalism.” It went well – we looked at three main ideas: nature as didactic imagery in the Bible, human as steward vs. human as one who subdues, and God’s ownership over creation. The text we decided to use for the last was this:
But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth and it will teach you; the fish of the sea, they will inform you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the eternal has done this? (Job 12:7-9)
Why is it that the rest of creation, according to this text, inherently recognizes God’s ownership; why do all but humans seem to naturally understand God’s role in creation and our temporary use of these resources?
What I love about this passage is the suggestion that there is much to be learned from the animate and inanimate parts of the universe – and that these derive value not from their utility for humans, but from their status as God’s creations (I really don’t agree with all the mumbo jumbo about science and torah being at odds). They are valuable not for what they do for us, but simply because they are. Ok…I wanna go for a hike now…too bad I am working…soon soon. Here ends tree-hugger tangent…
So, back to the dentist…
I went last Friday. But the story does not begin there. It all started when my Mom gave me a guilt trip for not going to the dentist since I had paid into the insurance all year. So, I started doing some research. After being ripped off earlier this year for going for a yearly checkup of another sort, I decided to proceed slowly and with caution. I sent an email to the faculty list of our school entitled, “Please, help my teeth.” I asked if anyone had suggestions about how to utilize our insurance and who was a trustworthy dentist in town. I also called the insurance company. They told me that I was 100% covered for a checkup twice a year – as long as it fell within the Usual and Customary (UNC as they called it). Here is where the problem begins – they wouldn’t tell me what that rate was so I could find a dentist whose fees fell within it. They said the dentists would know. So I called the dentists next. They were hostile to say the least, and one even hung up on me mid-questioning. Result: no dentist would provide this information either. What a load of crap. But wait, it gets better.
I called my insurance again, asking why they wouldn’t tell me what the UNC was, since I could figure it out rather quickly once I got my reimbursement check from them and it see what it didn’t cover. They said that indeed they did have this information, but it was COPYRIGHTED, that’s right folks, copyrighted. At this point I flat out started laughing into the guys ear. You have gotta be kidding me. This is crap.
So, I did what I could do. I found a nice dentist who I heard didn’t overcharge and today I went for the second time– the first time being after I stayed up all night studying Torah and then proceeded to almost fall asleep in the chair. I am not so fearful of the dentist – except for when I was getting Novocain shots I was humming and talking with the folks while they played with a drill and went to work…what a weird way to spend your days…looking at people’s hot and stinky mouths. Someone’s gotta do it right?
May you all have healthy teeth and honest insurance companies...
(by the way…I will be on a plane for Israel in exactly one month…b”h)
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