I was the welcome recipient of a stranger's magnificent smile this afternoon. I was walking (rather quickly as I tend to do) out of the subway station on my way to work when I chanced to look up, make eye contact with a smiling young woman, and continue on my way. During the five-minute walk to work I was musing on the effect a simple smile can have on a person. I started watching my mind wander through the days when I used to smile more, to the rationale behind the smiles I feel I've lost, and what I can offer in their stead with such as I have to give.
This led to a momentary recapitulation, with some brief instantaneous apparitions of meandering rabbit trails, of different interpretations and motivations behind smiles, and their potential meanings and readings in the mind, but I tried my best to deter the worst of those and keep focused on the higher, purer, pleasure of the experience.
Eventually my thoughts turned down a familiar path, and then a took a few more twists and turns which I won't detail here, lest my intentions get bogged down in the quagmire of recollections as opposed to the soaring revelations I intend, at any rate, I took the turn towards the mountain-path of love and thoroughly enjoyed the stroll.
So, to get back on track, a smile is just a smile, but it's still a choice, or the consequence of one, and as such there is a certain measure of control over such a simple action. The same is true, or could be true, of all manifestations of love, from the inarticulate to the incalculable expressions that pass between people circumnavigating existence (were existence round). Letters of love have spanned time, stories of love have crossed cultures, actions motivated by love have united enemies, and one in particular has abolished all rebuttals against what love can do.
I rely a lot on words. My final thought spawned from that smile was that love needs more than words; it still needs words, but it needs the smiles too, and all the greater things, but I should start by smiling more.
- Foster
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Have you ever found yourself actually supressing a smile when you meet someone? I have. But when I thought about it later, I really shouldn't have held it in. Those smiles are the genuine ones! Maybe I'm just reluctant to display my emotions. But I agree, for myself: I should smile more. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure suppressing a smile is ever something I've consciously done... I've certainly curtailed a few, morphing them to smirks, truncated others, cutting them short, either by force of will, turning away, or breaking off too quickly to another avenue, subject, or emotional response, and I guess I've even ignored or denied the initial impulse that would spark the occasion, so I do understand and reiterate our shared conclusions.
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