Something to chew on

Finally, a first post. Seems I spend so much time writing for money that I neglect to do it for pleasure...

Best to begin with a beginning, then. This morning, my seven-year-old presented me with a big good-morning, one-tooth-missing grin. The tooth finally realized it was time to make way for bigger things and got out of the way. A cause for celebration, which in a seven-year-old's world, is something like a dollar in an old glasses case.

Ahh, that tooth -- impossibly white and innocent and glistening with symbolism. It bulged close to the gum's surface when he was just five months old and burst through without fanfare at six. I cried that day because my baby was growing up.

And now my little boy is growing up. Endings and beginnings, sometimes difficult to distinguish from one another, distressing and exhilarating all at once.

Today I feel much like an old tooth.