Mowing 101
Dr. Pfister would never have guessed that a chore like mowing would prepare him for a career in orthodontics.
Growing up as kids, we all had our chores. And as I reflect back on my various assigned tasks, little did I know these chores actually shaped me for the future ahead…
Each chore gives us a defined skill set and helps prepare us for tackling and completing the jobs that lie ahead of us. Well, not every chore - I’m still taking the trash out and it’s still pretty mundane, until the bottom breaks out and I’m covered with last night’s left overs. I know… should have prepared ahead for the weight and doubled bagged!
But the task that taught me the most as a child has to be lawn mowing. Now, I know you’re saying, “Are you kidding me?” Let me explain. I grew up on a farm with two lakes. And this doesn’t sound so unusual until you have to cut grass around them. My dad would do part and I, being the oldest child, did the other. This amounted to, give or take, 8-10 hours of cutting every two weeks. I swore when I grew up I would live in a condo on a dirt mound!
Funny how the things we sometimes disdain the most… the things we bury deepest in our souls… only manifest themselves later along life’s path.
You guessed it, 25 years ago my wife and I built a home in the country… and on a lake! Are you kidding me?! No, I’ve been back cutting grass ever since I graduated from ortho school, but now I view it as exercise and meditation therapy.
Grass cutting, in general, has to be looked at with a wide lens (around the lake) and then the medium view (around the trees) and finally the inner edge detail work (around mulch beds and flowers). The last part is the most important and cannot be correctly started until the first two phases of cutting have been completed. “Why is this the most important?” you ask. Seems in life, it’s not always the big things that will get you into trouble, it’s how you manage the details. As they say, “the devil is in the details.”
In my world, I can complete the entire bite - all eight molars, eight bicuspids, and four canines - but if the upper front two teeth are not even and properly contoured, it was all for naught if the patient isn’t happy looking at her smile. All of you can relate this to your job, no matter what you do. Miss something along the way (that at the time seemed insignificant) and you may find yourself in a world of hurt down the road. Any police officer will tell you that. How you develop and nurture a lawn is also very important…
I have quite a beautiful lawn, if I do say so myself. My brother and several of my friends are secretly envious of my yard but are not willing to fertilize, rake clippings, or cut at the proper level their own yards.
Preparation and care must go into everything we do.
It will show if we do and especially if we don’t. Remember, I live in the woods and my yard cannot be seen by anyone, unless you drive back to my house. So my boys and I work on our lawn for personal gratification and enjoy sitting back Saturday evenings, around the fire, getting that personal inner warmth from a job well done. I get that same feeling every time we take patients out of braces or Invisalign and they see their completed smiles for the first time.
I am very fortunate to have an occupation that excites and warms my soul every day. I only hope for my readers that they can find personal satisfaction and joy in their life’s mission.
As a final little nugget of truth, it’s not only what we do in life, it’s also how we do it that makes it special.
To continue with the example of lawn mowing, it’s not simply the action of cutting the lawn that shows off your house and skills, but it’s how you cut the lawn that greatly enhances the final outcome!
Mowing is one of the few jobs in life where you can spend 3-4 hours going in circles and end up where you started, feeling like you really accomplished something! Personally, I feel sitting on a mower with your favorite beverage and ear buds while listening to some good music for several hours is almost as good for the soul as meditation. I said almost. But be careful, just like everywhere else in life, drinking on the job can lead to very undesirable results and a few missing shrubs!
Going in circles was the standard of cutting for years, with the only change being clockwise one week, counterclockwise the next. Then, some smart lawn mowers, probably from MIT, came up with attaching specific rollers to the mower deck and called it a striper kit. To gain popularity as fast as possible, they were debuted at golf courses and country clubs.
Who doesn’t want their yard to look like a country club? One must go in straight lines and stay as close together as possible. It takes some getting used to and I eventually went back to my old ways, like most of the other things in my life. I was simply more comfortable with my tried-and-true technique… going in circles wasn’t so bad after all! But, if done right, the striper job is a jaw-dropper that will have your neighbors green with envy.
As you can see, lawn mowing has been an integral part of my life, along with being part of my life’s compass.
Similar to my approach to lawn mowing, as I set up a patient’s case, I start with a wide focus of jaw joint and bone conditions; then, I move into gum, soft supporting tissues, and tooth position (the medium view); and, finally, the shape and condition of each tooth (the detail work).
Just as a trusty riding lawn mower gives the homeowner the tool needed for a well-manicured lawn, braces and Invisalign give the orthodontist the means to create the perfect smile.
But a lawn mower… braces… Invisalign… these are just a means to an end. The person that wields and manipulates them must put care into what he does with them. And it’s not only in what he does, it’s how he does it that will yield the final outcome. The homeowner that executes the perfect striper job will have his lawn looking like a golf course. And the orthodontist who can assess the canvas of the face and bring everything together in perfect harmony (from big picture down to the detail work)… well… a near-perfect smile will serve as proof of a job well-done.
Have a great Memorial Day weekend Medina County!
- Dr. Pfister