Transcen-dental Floss

I was in bed last night before I remembered to clean my teeth. Getting forgetful. I need to floss between the ears to keep the brain from getting cavities. So I'll think hard and write another note about God redefined as reality. Consider this note my transcen-dental floss routine. 

Reality 

During my last dental cleaning, I traded stories with the hygienist about how dental care has changed over my lifetime. I told her that my Dad got dentures sometime in his forties. Now in my eighties, I still have all but two original teeth. Not to be outdone, the hygienist told a story about her great great aunt who got ready for marriage by having all her teeth extracted in anticipation of the lean years to come. She didn't want to pay for fillings. That was during wartime. Lean years indeed. Smart lady.

I was four when the second world war ended. Back then life was simple; you could brush your teeth with baking soda.

After the war, as the economy expanded, dental care became big business. "You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent." Now in 2026, you can spend your whole morning at the pharmacy reading toothpaste labels: anti-cavity, anti-halitosis, desensitizing, fluoride, whitening, small-medium-large, many flavours, many brands.

Reality evolved and we learned to do things differently. In 1968 when we moved to Guelph, our new dentist said we should floss as well as brush. We were assured that with proper care our teeth would outlast us. Good. We began flossing. Now fifty-eight years later, I'm still flossing and smiling.

Meanwhile, reality has moved on. So we need to keep flossing our metaphysics.

Metaphysics 

Looking back, when times were tough, we just accepted what the parents told us to believe and assumed somebody had it figured out so it must be true. 

Mom and Dad deserve credit. They did their best. However, their teeth didn't last, and that tells us something. We can likely improve on the way they managed their reality.

Long after the war, the economy expanded, we grew up and got jobs and had families. We began thinking for ourselves. We had a choice between continuing with the old wartime God of law-obedience-justice-retribution or brushing and flossing some new thoughts of our own more fitting to a life of peace-sufficiency-plenty. We imagined a God of gracious providence, charity, forgiveness. 

Reality kept evolving.

We are now in a reality that we didn't see coming: climate change, pollution, ideological and political polarization, poverty, intolerance, wealth disparity, nationalism, government by psychopath, empire building, drone warfare, toxic social media. 

What if God is no longer the gracious provider of abundance and growth ?  How do we keep smiling while reality contracts into exploitation, neediness and conflict ?

If reality demands living well with less, that has been done before, and we can do it again with new insight added to traditional wisdom. Whatever we are thinking about God, there is more.

Reality (God) is more than grace.

Yet reality may be gracious
if that's how we choose to live.

Not sure where this is going.

I shall carry on flossing.

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The Heresy of Waking Up: Jim Palmer, A Non-religious Lent, Week 1

The God of the Philosophers vs The God of the Bible: Benjamin J. Curtis, Journey Through Reality

Collapse: Living Without the Future We Were Promised: Adrian Lambert, A Grand Unified Theory of Doom