Does History Repeat Itself?

As seniors, we've had numerous occasions to test this statement whether history repeats itself or not. Of course, there is the broad sense such as long-term historical evidence. And there are personal experiences.

Fifty years ago, I experienced some pain from a toothache. Unfortunately, I lived in California and my bride-to-be was in Michigan. Since I was soon heading for our wedding, I went to my Dentist who looked it over, took an x-ray and said to take it along just in case.

The pain subsided. I hopped the plane and all went well during the rehearsal dinner and the wedding itself. No pain. No worry. At the reception following the wedding, I chatted with many guests. Two were Dentists and long-time friends. So, what do you talk about?

I told them of my experience with the toothache and shrugged it off. But not one of the Dentists. He said emphatically to meet him at his office, forty miles away, the next afternoon. Sunday. He was not going to let me go back to California without examining it himself.

I showed him the x-ray, and he took his own. Short story. I spent three hours in his office undergoing a root canal invasion with impressions taken for a crown.

Meanwhile, my wife spent the afternoon with his wife. When we returned to California, we soon received a package, took the crown to my Dentist who tapped it in. Fit perfectly.

Now, we just celebrated our fiftieth anniversary with a two-week trip. During the second week I experienced another toothache. Once again, an abscessed tooth, a root canal procedure with its nasty pain pill after effects. As fifty years earlier, everything was timed so well that none of our celebration was seriously affected. Was that a mere coincidence menacing both our wedding and the 50th ? A repeat of history? An inconsequential, routine event?

At any rate it certainly gave me a scary senior moment. But we survived. Twice. Mark Twain reportedly once said, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes." We can go along with that.