Generally speaking, I can be convinced by a good argument. It's a natural outcome of being such a fan of logic and reason and having an engineering brain that relates problems to known ones, really. If you remember any of my "moment of truth" posts, (about forks and knives or about hugs), this should come as no surprise. It's how my brain works, and I am constantly trying to learn new things that I can put to use. However, there are also some very interesting side effects of this particular trait.
A while back, I had an appointment with my dentist and she was going through the usual motions. All in all, my teeth were in pretty good shape, and she said as much. She did suggest that I could probably keep my teeth even cleaner by using mouth wash more often, though. When the technician finished up by cleaning my teeth, she repeated that advice. Except for she actually said that I could use hydrogen peroxide to do that cleaning.
Now, I really didn't think too much about this, so all I did was ask if there was a recommended "dosage" in order to do this. Like I've said before, this is my kind of dentist office, so I was not surprised to hear that she said, "about a shot's worth." I chuckled a little bit at that point, since that was an awfully interesting measurement to throw out. I also remember that she added that for some people, that's a little too strong, so I could dilute the hydrogen peroxide a little bit with some water.
Anyhow, I thought this was interesting advice, so I mentioned it to the Mild Ex at one point. She immediately made a face and said that this was a terrible idea. Since she had such a strong reaction, my curiosity kicked in. I asked why. Well, to paraphrase what she said, hydrogen peroxide will kill both healthy cells and bacteria with which it happens to come into contact. It's one of those things where the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, but it still has some notable drawbacks. It's also some odd advice, since there's a widely-accepted substitute that serves the exact same function (that'd be mouth wash).
By this point, though, my curiosity had been activated, so I asked what the difference was between hydrogen peroxide and mouth wash. I mean, why is one acceptable but the other isn't? Let's not forget that mouth wash stings a little bit and comes with a "don't ingest this stuff, it's dangerous" label of its own. So why is mouth wash okay? Most people don't bother to think about this stuff, and the Mild Ex was no different. She didn't know the answer off the top of her head. What's more, when she looked it up, it turns out that mouth wash falls into the same category of "benefits outweigh the drawbacks" as hydrogen peroxide. As far as I could tell, the only real difference was the degree to which they kill cells (hydrogen peroxide is more potent stuff).
Well, if that was the case, then I didn't see why I couldn't use the hydrogen peroxide. If I just diluted the hydrogen peroxide, then I'd basically have low-cost mouth wash on my hands. The Mild Ex still thought it was really weird, so she wasn't convinced. But remember that engineering brain I was mentioning? It needed to understand why this was a bad idea, and it needed a good reason for why this was a bad idea. In short, I wanted a good reason for why I should ignore the dental hygienist's advice. I was perfectly happy to do something else, but I wanted to know why. The Mild Ex laughed and shook her head at me.
Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I saw a YouTube clip for what I thought was a really good speech at the University of Texas commencement ceremony. I would highly recommend listening to the speech if you've got about 20 minutes. If you don't have that time, a naval admiral and former Marine suggests several things you can do and traits you can emulate if you want to be a positive force in this world. In particular, one of the things he suggested was that one of the first things you should do in the morning was make your bed. His argument was basically that it starts your day off on the right foot, and it gets you into the mindset to be productive every single day.
Mind you, I haven't had to make my bed since I was a kid. Once I became an adult and could decide on my own when I had to make my bed, I stopped being so disciplined about it. It just wasn't a priority for me. Sure, I'd make it every now and again, but I didn't make sure it happened every day. Still, the admiral's argument sounded like a decent enough reason to me. So I started making my bed in the mornings every day. I don't necessarily think I'm going to change the world, but I certainly wouldn't mind an extra pep to my step in the morning.
All of this led back to my favorite part of these two stories. I also told the Mild Ex about the speech, since I thought it was that good. Of course, I didn't leave out the part where I started making my bed, either. Her reaction and my response pretty much sums up the entire point of this post:
Mild Ex: "Wait, let me get this straight. You won't listen to me about the hydrogen peroxide, but you'll listen to some random stranger about making your bed? Your mom couldn't even get you to do that!"
Me: "Um, well, yeah. He had a good reason."
Luckily for me, the Mild Ex knew that I didn't mean any offense by this (I wasn't somehow implying that she was unreasonable), and she knows me well enough to understand why I thought this way. So, she just laughed at me. A lot.
I lead a rough life, I tell you.
A while back, I had an appointment with my dentist and she was going through the usual motions. All in all, my teeth were in pretty good shape, and she said as much. She did suggest that I could probably keep my teeth even cleaner by using mouth wash more often, though. When the technician finished up by cleaning my teeth, she repeated that advice. Except for she actually said that I could use hydrogen peroxide to do that cleaning.
Now, I really didn't think too much about this, so all I did was ask if there was a recommended "dosage" in order to do this. Like I've said before, this is my kind of dentist office, so I was not surprised to hear that she said, "about a shot's worth." I chuckled a little bit at that point, since that was an awfully interesting measurement to throw out. I also remember that she added that for some people, that's a little too strong, so I could dilute the hydrogen peroxide a little bit with some water.
Anyhow, I thought this was interesting advice, so I mentioned it to the Mild Ex at one point. She immediately made a face and said that this was a terrible idea. Since she had such a strong reaction, my curiosity kicked in. I asked why. Well, to paraphrase what she said, hydrogen peroxide will kill both healthy cells and bacteria with which it happens to come into contact. It's one of those things where the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, but it still has some notable drawbacks. It's also some odd advice, since there's a widely-accepted substitute that serves the exact same function (that'd be mouth wash).
By this point, though, my curiosity had been activated, so I asked what the difference was between hydrogen peroxide and mouth wash. I mean, why is one acceptable but the other isn't? Let's not forget that mouth wash stings a little bit and comes with a "don't ingest this stuff, it's dangerous" label of its own. So why is mouth wash okay? Most people don't bother to think about this stuff, and the Mild Ex was no different. She didn't know the answer off the top of her head. What's more, when she looked it up, it turns out that mouth wash falls into the same category of "benefits outweigh the drawbacks" as hydrogen peroxide. As far as I could tell, the only real difference was the degree to which they kill cells (hydrogen peroxide is more potent stuff).
Well, if that was the case, then I didn't see why I couldn't use the hydrogen peroxide. If I just diluted the hydrogen peroxide, then I'd basically have low-cost mouth wash on my hands. The Mild Ex still thought it was really weird, so she wasn't convinced. But remember that engineering brain I was mentioning? It needed to understand why this was a bad idea, and it needed a good reason for why this was a bad idea. In short, I wanted a good reason for why I should ignore the dental hygienist's advice. I was perfectly happy to do something else, but I wanted to know why. The Mild Ex laughed and shook her head at me.
Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I saw a YouTube clip for what I thought was a really good speech at the University of Texas commencement ceremony. I would highly recommend listening to the speech if you've got about 20 minutes. If you don't have that time, a naval admiral and former Marine suggests several things you can do and traits you can emulate if you want to be a positive force in this world. In particular, one of the things he suggested was that one of the first things you should do in the morning was make your bed. His argument was basically that it starts your day off on the right foot, and it gets you into the mindset to be productive every single day.
Mind you, I haven't had to make my bed since I was a kid. Once I became an adult and could decide on my own when I had to make my bed, I stopped being so disciplined about it. It just wasn't a priority for me. Sure, I'd make it every now and again, but I didn't make sure it happened every day. Still, the admiral's argument sounded like a decent enough reason to me. So I started making my bed in the mornings every day. I don't necessarily think I'm going to change the world, but I certainly wouldn't mind an extra pep to my step in the morning.
All of this led back to my favorite part of these two stories. I also told the Mild Ex about the speech, since I thought it was that good. Of course, I didn't leave out the part where I started making my bed, either. Her reaction and my response pretty much sums up the entire point of this post:
Mild Ex: "Wait, let me get this straight. You won't listen to me about the hydrogen peroxide, but you'll listen to some random stranger about making your bed? Your mom couldn't even get you to do that!"
Me: "Um, well, yeah. He had a good reason."
Luckily for me, the Mild Ex knew that I didn't mean any offense by this (I wasn't somehow implying that she was unreasonable), and she knows me well enough to understand why I thought this way. So, she just laughed at me. A lot.
I lead a rough life, I tell you.
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