The dentist

It occurred to me today that the one constant unchanging thing in my life, apart from Jesus and my family, is my dentist. I've been going to see him for 20 years now. Every 6 months I walk up the same flight of red carpeted stairs to sit in his waiting room. The room has gone upmarket over the last few years, graduating from "Womans Weekly" magazines to "Hello" and "Readers Digest", but today I found a TV in it. Which seems like a slightly inconsequential thing to have in a waiting room. Surely if you were waiting long enough to enjoy a whole programe you'd also be highly irritated at waiting for so long, thus negating the enjoyment of the television programme? Waiting rooms aren't there to act like a lounge, you aren't meant to take up home at the dentists. Anyway. I think I've just realised where my extra £4 on the price of cleaning my teeth has gone to.

So I sit in his waiting room and the thought comes to me. I've been doing this for 20 years. There is hardly anything else I've been doing for 20 years. I don't know whether to get sentimental about this, but nothing else has lasted for so long. He's seen me at 7 and at 27 and everything else inbetween. Do you think he finds that weird? We have no relationship really, just a few comments about the weather, how life is (always fine) and lots of smiling and wishing each other a good day at the end when I feel generous towards him because he hasn't given me a filing. But the weirdest thing is, he hasn't aged. He looks exactly the same. Is my dentist stuck in a timeless land? And should I ever mention these things to him?