smiles

Have you ever been caught at the tail end of someone else’s smile? Like today, I was out walking my dogs and I passed a stranger pleasantly smiling at me, so I smiled back. Then I realized it wasn’t meant for me. I noticed his hand reach inside his pocket, replacing his phone to a safe place. The smile was for the person on the phone. And then I felt ripped off, because I was just being nice and had flashed a hearty smile in his direction and in return, received a smile that had lost its fizz.

Or there’s the smile that’s not a smile at all but a grimace. Like the sweaty guy on a bike that I passed and smiled back at, only to realize it was a pained expression from overexertion.

And then there’s the smile that gives you the creeps. Take the scenario of the two friends who promised each other the first day of spring to go jogging. They’re pumped, eager and charge out of the gates too fast, only to burn out at the end of the block. Then they spy someone walking their dogs, so they pull themselves up and start jogging again and pick up speed and as they get closer, they get faster and then they notice it’s a woman, so they suck in their guts and run even faster, grinning foolishly as they pass by, sweating, eyes bugging, faces red, bald heads under wraps of a sun hat.

And I thought to myself as I passed them by, because I was the “person walking their dogs,” that their sweaty, flushed, buggy-eyed expression is probably the same as when they’re in a less compromising position. And I looked back over my shoulder as we passed and there they were walking or rather, dragging their butts, gasping for breath, and holding each other up. And it made me smile.

I don’t think we smile enough. Smiling makes you feel good. Smiling is free and fun. Smiling is good PR. Smile and the whole world smiles with you.

 

For Gloria, who still makes me smile.