I just got home. The root canal was so great that I'm blogging about it.

At 67, I expect an occasional tooth canal, but I did not expect that today's root canal was to be this wonderful.

Yes, root canal. Back when I was born, several hours of the greatest pain that one could experience and still be alive afterward.  The proverbial root canal. The previous one for me, about a year ago, lasted an hour and a half, with a moment of pain now and then.

Today's root canal was done by the same dentist. I chose him because he is a Geek like me, but I didn't even expect This Geek.

He must have wanted me to enjoy a surprise; he didn't even show me his new computer-controlled high-power laser root canal gizmo. He just did the root canal with it. A second and a half later I saw and smelled a small puff of smoke. And that was it. The technician put the temporary cover back in, and said it's done, see the receptionist on the way out because to put in a crown.

Pain happens when some neurotransmitter gets out of a damaged cell and hits a pain nerve. Laser, no pain. The whole cell is vaporized to fast that the pain stuff doesn't have time to get out of the cell before it's smoke.

No pain. no risk of pain. not even a possibility of pain.

This is what I experienced: the whole Suffering thing is nearly down to a maybe-once-in-a-lifetime unprevented accident. And we Humans are working on "unprevented."

If it were not for Christians enforcing their "Suffering is a precious gift of God" faith on me, I'd expect Suffering to be a once-a-year-or-so thing before I die.

2500 years ago Suffering was obviously, visibly co-extensive with life. It was so universal that it was one of the first universal facts ever induced. "Life Is Suffering" was a Noble Truth.

And now it is gone in a little puff of smoke.