Teeth are a good thing, if you are hungry and the food on your plate is anything but applesauce and oatmeal. They come in different sizes, and degrees of sharpness, but all of them can do a number on a honeycrisp.

Chew it over is a phrase that means you are taking apart an idea, for the purpose of digesting it and integrating it into your way of being. But the notion of chewing someone out is not amicable. Chewy is a compliment to the daughter who made brownies on Saturday. It is also the handle of a furry intergallactic companion.  

My son attends a discussion group affectionately known as Gnashing of Teeth. He participates in the effort to debate about matters that, well, matter to him. It is not the goal to have everyone agree with the premise and go home. That would not be satisfying. Or so he tells me. 

The process of life on this planet is comparable to the digestive system. Circumstances like bills and relationships break us down and soften us up.

John and I have been gnawing a hole in our finances. We sat down for a few hours and looked at numbers. We listened, we chewed things over, we heard.

It was not exactly delicious, but it fed me.