On Tuesdays I have no classes (as opposed to no class), so I took the opportunity to go to the dentist for the first time since I've been at Princeton. The dentist's office was located in a strip mall about 4 miles from campus, next to the usual martial arts school and Chinese restaurant. I was the only patient, which was mildly disconcerting, but it was 3:00 in the afternoon on a Tuesday.
While lying in the examination chair waiting for the dentist to appear, I made small talk with the dental assistant who was from Bulgaria and has only been in the States for 10 months. I told her that I recently came to seminary after several years' copywriting. It turns out that she has a friend who left Wall Street to become a--she struggled for the word--monk. Seeing as how everything in the office--from the computers, to the paint job (typical dentist's green), to the chair I was lying in--looked brand new, I asked her how long the office had been there. Six months, apparently.
The dentist was a young Indian woman (which would explain the Indian music playing throughout the office instead of the usual lite FM). After she finished the routine exam and cleaning, we chatted briefly, much as I had done with the assistant. But when she found out I used to work in advertising, she asked me to come up with a tag line for her Web site! What she had was about a paragraph long and was lifted from somewhere else. I asked her why the name of the office was VSmile, and she explained that her name began with "V"and that it was somehow connected to "we" (perhaps the Indian pronunciation of "we"?) Then she shared her "philosophy" of dentistry, which is that she treats each patient as though he/she were her own mother (which presumes that she has genuine affection for her mother!). She asked me to think about a tag line and call the office if I came up with anything clever.
On my way to the car I thought I might give it a few minutes' thought this evening, but I couldn't see myself actually calling her office, even if I did think of something brilliant. Then while waiting for the car to warm up, I was thinking about what she said about treating each patient like her mother, and it came to me: "V Are Family."
I turned the car off and went back to the office. She was on the phone, but when I mentioned that I thought of a line, she put a piece of paper and a pen in front of me. I wrote the line and showed it to her once she was off the phone. She loved it!
Ve can only smile at such serendipity.
While lying in the examination chair waiting for the dentist to appear, I made small talk with the dental assistant who was from Bulgaria and has only been in the States for 10 months. I told her that I recently came to seminary after several years' copywriting. It turns out that she has a friend who left Wall Street to become a--she struggled for the word--monk. Seeing as how everything in the office--from the computers, to the paint job (typical dentist's green), to the chair I was lying in--looked brand new, I asked her how long the office had been there. Six months, apparently.
The dentist was a young Indian woman (which would explain the Indian music playing throughout the office instead of the usual lite FM). After she finished the routine exam and cleaning, we chatted briefly, much as I had done with the assistant. But when she found out I used to work in advertising, she asked me to come up with a tag line for her Web site! What she had was about a paragraph long and was lifted from somewhere else. I asked her why the name of the office was VSmile, and she explained that her name began with "V"and that it was somehow connected to "we" (perhaps the Indian pronunciation of "we"?) Then she shared her "philosophy" of dentistry, which is that she treats each patient as though he/she were her own mother (which presumes that she has genuine affection for her mother!). She asked me to think about a tag line and call the office if I came up with anything clever.
On my way to the car I thought I might give it a few minutes' thought this evening, but I couldn't see myself actually calling her office, even if I did think of something brilliant. Then while waiting for the car to warm up, I was thinking about what she said about treating each patient like her mother, and it came to me: "V Are Family."
I turned the car off and went back to the office. She was on the phone, but when I mentioned that I thought of a line, she put a piece of paper and a pen in front of me. I wrote the line and showed it to her once she was off the phone. She loved it!
Ve can only smile at such serendipity.
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