All Hail the Powerful Smile!

A wise photographer - when facing a stiffly posed couple - often instructed the man to think about the last thing his wife whispered in his ear.   With those words, tension vanished, both parties relaxed and camera-man snapped the look of love.   

This strategy was a hundred times more effective than if he'd said, "Smile!"

Smiling is way over-rated.

Who started this anyway?   This thing of making us feel guilty for not smiling ...

We've been brainwashed to believe that unless we paste generous smiles on our faces when walking down a crowded street, we'll be responsible for the next deranged stranger who throws himself headlong under a fast-moving freight train. 

Whatever happened to letting lips follow the dictates of hearts and minds?  Smiling gently as an awkward teenager wipes pizza sauce from his date's chin ... grinning at the puppy licking a little boy's face ... laughing out loud when our longshot comes in by a nose ... 

Is smiling a learned behavior or are we hardwired?  No one knows for sure, but  by the time we started first grade most of us knew how to show expressions we didn't feel and hide expressions we did feel.   

We all have a bit of con artist in our souls. 

By the time I landed in second grade I could easily tell fake smiles from real.  Today, more than seven decades later, I still can.

My father believed only two kinds of people went around smiling all the time ... Politicians and town idiots.   The Miss America pageant must have gained popularity after Daddy's time.   

A smile can win friends and calm enemies, but it has to be genuine.  It has to be real.  

A deliberate smile - flashed too intensely and held too long - is wasted on most people. 

It only arouses suspicion.

or worse ... ridicule.


email:  MelindaGerner@yahoo.com