Smile

I hope this blog post turns out better than the last one. I've been having problems with the look of my blog...posts crawling over one another and looking generally unpleasant.
Can't seem to find a help section either.
Anyways, that's not what this is about.

I'm sure you've heard the sayings about smiling. It takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile. Peace begins with a smile. Smiling burns calories. All people smile in the same language.

I mean, I'm the first to admit that I don't always walk around with a smile on my face. Let's be honest, if we did that people would probably think we escaped from the nearest mental institution.
One of my friends posted something on facebook the other day and it generated a lot of buzz.

"When is the last time someone told you to smile? How often does it happen?"
There was a lot of responses like:
-I hate when people do that. If I wanted to be smiling I would be.  
-Men consider us ornaments that should be smiling at all times 
-My knee jerk reaction would be to give them the middle finger

Really, people? I again go back to wondering how our society would be different if we weren't all so angry and jaded people. 
 
I've had people tell me to smile. I didn't immediately want to grab them by the throat and murder them. Nor did I ever think a male was telling me to hop on up and make him a sammich and do it with a smile on my face for his pleasure.

My response was:
"So what? Maybe I'd like to see you smile to brighten my day. Maybe I think you're having a bad day and I think a smile would help you. Maybe it's just so you know someone is thinking of you and your feelings. I don't know why we have to turn everything into a women's lib argument or an I can't believe someone would have the gall. Take it for what it's worth and it's probably a nice gesture. Not everyone in the world is out to get you."


Modern society is cynical and jaded and it appears even telling someone to smile is a no-no these days. What happened to the days of saying hello to your neighbor? Opening the door for someone? Offering to carry a bag or two? Some people suggest TV and the violence we are exposed to numbs us to these things. Is that true? If it is, what's the fix? When we cut ourselves off from that aspect of the world do we grow up with a unrealistic view, forcing us into a different quandry of not being prepared for the pains the world will throw at us? Or would the pains of the world go away?

I guess I don't have all the answers. I think, though, my advice is going to once again try to think of the days before when you could borrow a cup of sugar without getting a door slammed in your face. A softer, gentler society. And maybe next time when someone tells you to smile, maybe next time you smile. And maybe next time you smile, it fixes what ails you or at least lifts your spirits.