A Fairy Tale

Josephine and Greta were sitting in the bath the other night having a merry old time a-splishing and a-splashing. After fifteen minutes or so, a blood-curdling scream emanated from the bathroom. Christine ran to the bathroom, opened the door, noticed the sopping wet floor and shouted, "What's wrong?" Her fear had her imagining the worst.

Josephine's face was bloody and Christine hurried over to her. No crying, but she and Greta were frantically searching the through the water. Josephine looked up at Christine and said, "I lost a tooth." As she smiled, the gaping hole in her lower bite gave evidence to the fact that incisor was indeed lurking somewhere in the water.

As is our tradition, each of the girls has a small, tooth-shaped felt container that holds the tooth that has been freed. The night of ortho-dopsy, the girls will place their tooth in the toothholder and then place it under their pillow in hopes that the Tooth Fairy will come during the middle of the night to place a little present where the tooth was.

The Tooth Fairy is debatably an American character. Interestingly, the idea of hiding baby teeth after they have fallen out is customary world wide - and from much earlier traditions. I'm adding a few that really piqued my interest.

In Europe, mothers and fathers would bury the baby teeth outdoors in hopes that in its place adult teeth would grow. But, they also buried the teeth to keep it out of the hands of witches. If a witch were to get their hands on a baby tooth (or fingernail clipping or hair, for that fact), they would place a curse on the previous owner of the body part. Nice. Nothing like scaring kids witless when they lose a tooth. It's bad enough trying to convince kids that they are not dying when they recognize their first bowel movement.

In other parts of Europe, specifically France and Italy, the Tooth Fairy is not a 'fairy' (think Tinkerbell) in the traditional sense but a mouse. As the story goes in French "La Bonne Petite Souris" (the Good Little Mouse) a wonderful queen decides to punish an evil king by placing a mouse under his pillow where thereby the 'good little mouse' will torture the evil king and knock out all his teeth. In lowland Scotland, it's not a mouse, but a white, furry rat that hides under children's pillows to wait for them to go to sleep. Then, after the youth is fully asleep, the rat will produce a coin or treat from somewhere to replace the lost tooth. This is where our American tradition comes from, although I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of telling my kids there is a rat underneath their pillow.

Lastly, in parts of certain Asian countries: India, Korea and Vietnam, the child who has lost his or her tooth will take the tooth and place it somewhere in (or on) the house. According to tradition, if the tooth is lost from the lower jaw, the tooth is tossed onto the roof of the house. If, from the upper jaw, the tooth is placed in a crack in the floor. As it is hidden, the youth will shout into the air "bring me a mouse's tooth instead." Strange. But for good reason. Everyone knows, of course, that rodents' teeth do not stop growing. If you have mice teeth in your mouth, they will never get worn down, right?

You know what, I'm pretty comfortable with establishing a nice little 'fairy' tale about a man who comes in the middle of the night to take the old tooth and put a nice present under their pillow. Whether the man is wearing a tutu or a muumuu, whatever it takes, is a perfectly acceptable way to help kids deal with the pain of loss. But the visual is good for me in a different way.

If you are anything like me, I, many times put my thoughts beneath my pillow at night. All the worries and the cares that have stacked up, have worried me through the day, are placed beneath my head. In my prayers, I often will ask God to come take away the old, the distressing, the cares that seem too heavy and replace them with gifts like peace, joy, patience, kindness, - you can look up that list. Of course, God is not the tooth fairy, and not a fairy tale for that fact, but the results for me are similar. When I wake up, usually I will feel refreshed, not just be sleep, but the ability of God to take something of my immaturity and turn it into maturity. I love the fact that I still say the prayer with the girls, "Now I lay me down to sleep..." At night, I place everything into God's hands including the deepest recess of my soul. Even if that moment comes and life as I know it leaves, well, what a gift waits for me under the pillow.

Enjoy life - tomorrow has enough worries of its own.