Lupe

According to Lupe, my dental assistant, this world is crazy and is making us all sick. He has a point, I thought to myself as he took X-ray pictures of my teeth. Lupe is a Mexican dental assistant who looked to be in his mid 50s. We had a nice chat as he snapped pics of my teeth and gums. First of all I’d just like to point out how much the dentist has changed in the last 2 years since I’ve been. Everything is more digital than I remember. Lupe was able to take pics of my teeth as I sat there in the dentist chair, talking about life.

Lupe comes from a small town on the Mexico/California border. He started commenting on how young and healthy I am and how the older you get, you start to fall apart. I wanted to tell him how untrue that is. Or that it doesn’t have to be that way. But it’s hard to let out a health spiel when you have bite wings in your grill. I was subjected to only replying with head nods, mmm hmmm’s and uh huh’s. I wanted to tell him there is still hope. That he doesn’t have to fall apart as he ages. I wanted to tell him old age does not equal illness as long as you take care of yourself.

“What’s the deal with all this mental health stuff,” he asked me. “It seems like people have more mental health issues now than when I was younger”, he told me. Once he removed the little plastic bite down things from my mouth I responded by telling him mental health problems are not new, they just aren’t being ignored anymore. Emotions are real, I told him. We have to know how to handle them and our reactions to them.

“You know, I make 10xs more money here in the United States than I would if I lived in Mexico. I make way more than my friends in Mexico but I live a more stressful life. Isn’t that crazy?” he told me. He followed that up with the fact that his friends would love to work in the US but they just don’t know how good they have it in Mexico.

“LA is a stressful city” I said. Especially for someone who is not from here like me. He asked me where I am from and how long I’ve been in CA. While viewing photos of my teeth, I told him how I’m form NJ and have lived and travelled all over the place before moving to SoCal.

“It’s good that I travel and don’t want kids. Once you have kids you have to stay in one place” Lupe said.

In one sense, he’s right. This word is crazy and making us all sick. I totally agree, should work less and Mexico is a great place to live if you check your priorities. On the other hand, his beliefs are limited in that he thinks a family with children cannot enjoy the world and raise kids at the same time. It can be done if you prioritize travel and exploration over material things.