Today I want to talk teeth. I opened my sock drawer this morning and found a couple of little gnashers gleaming up at me. This is where some of my youngest son's teeth have been stashed, after being rescued from under his pillow - or in his mind, taken by the tooth fairy - to be replaced with a gleaming object of another variety - a one pound coin. The tooth fairy is a mightily industrious member of childhood mythology, who quite quickly becomes a member of a tooth fairy army, as she couldn't possibly do all this rather thankless work by herself. In fact the tooth fairy is utterly selfless, as she not only extracts the tooth from beneath the pillow - by physical force, or magical powers - she then lugs said tooth, or teeth - by physical force, or magical powers - all the way back to fairy land.
This selfless act is all done to help in the continual building of the fairy castle. Not only is she a tooth trafficker, she is also a construction worker. What a life!! She should have opted for a quiet life and become a nun. It's no wonder little girls want to be fairy princesses, as according to the laws of hierarchy, this must mean power over the worker fairies and an easier existence. My youngest son no longer really believes in the tooth fairy but he puts on his best poker face and goes along with it, believing that if he declares himself a tooth fairy atheist, he will no longer receive a pound coin under his pillow.
In centuries to come, when our age is being dug up on archaeology shows by the future Tony Robinsons, should such things still exist, they will be shocked to discover treasure troves of children's' teeth, leading them to believe that weird cannibalistic practices took place, or bizarre rituals, involving tooth removal. They may well discover that we quite simply told pleasant, yet slightly strange lies to our children. I don't know what they will make of Father Christmas!!
A child's teeth fall out over a fairly prolonged period of time, marking the loss of childhood, going from an unwavering belief in what they are told by their parents, to doubt surfacing as they become older and understand more about the world, until they reach the point of non belief. The journey is lovely but leads ultimately to a sad, albeit inevitable loss, known as growing up.
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