Teeth: Of Dentists and Alligators

I've been seeing the same dentist since April 2007. Her name is Yasmin B. Majid, D.D.S.; her office is located at 2401 Calvert Street, NW, Suite 106, Washington, DC 20008. Her telephone number is 202 462 7676. You should call her and make an appointment. She's a terrific dentist and a wonderful person. Plus, she speaks fluent Urdu.

She always remarks on how calm I am in comparison with other patients. I saw her a few weeks ago and she said to me: "Mr. Freedman, you are so calm. I can tell because you don't salivate that much."

When I first saw her, back in April 2007, I hadn't seen a dentist since the spring of 1978, 29 years before. So I had a lot of dental work that needed to be done. On my first visit to Dr. Majid in April 2007 she worked on me for about two hours. She said, "Mr. Freedman, you are such a wonderful patient. With most people, I wouldn't be able to work on them for two hours. But you are so relaxed. You are so calm. Most people start fidgeting in the chair. I can't stand that. With most people, I can't work that long on them because they start fidgeting and I have to tell them to make another appointment. I just can't work on them that long; when a person gets agitated in the chair it irritates me. I certainly couldn't work on them for two hours straight. But you are such a wonderful patient."

Where did the Justice Department get the idea, from reading my blog, that I am an agitated, violent person? I started my blog, My Daily Struggles, in the fall of 2005; in the fall of 2009, I started to post documents that had been written by me and others in the 1990s. That's long-term planning at its most extreme! Someone who lies in wait, patiently stalking a pack of racketeers for twenty years is not an agitated, violent person. To the contrary, he's calm, methodical, and not given to emotional displays. The Justice Department seems lacking in basic common sense.

I would say I have the personality of an alligator. I once saw one of those nature shows on TV; it was about alligators. The show explained how alligators will stalk their prey for hours. They just lie in wait, watching their prey -- a pack of wildebeests, for example, drinking at the water's edge -- waiting for the precise moment to strike. They remain absolutely motionless in the water. Alligators are calm creatures. They will remain utterly still for hours; they move slowly if they move at all, but they strike suddenly, without warning. I identified with that disposition. I identify with alligators. I've been stalking Akin Gump now for almost twenty-two years. If someone had said to me in 1988: "Mr. Freedman, would you be interested to know that you will terminated by Akin Gump in 1991, and you will spend the next 18 years stalking the firm. You will never work again after 1991." I would have said without surprise: "Yea. That sounds about right. That sounds like something I would do."

Mind you, I don't identify with the violence of the alligator. I identify with the creature's patience, it's absolute calm and utter conviction that it can ultimately bring down it's target.

But of course, I suffer from psychotic mental illness. I have a lot of strange ideas.