Sweet Smiles
Yesterday, I had two ideas I thought I might write about this morning. I believed they were committed to memory. I was wrong. Only one survived the night. Maybe the other will show up later today. We’ll see. Meanwhile, here’s the survivor. Sweet smiles. These are the smiles you get from people in passing. As you leave a store. As you enter a store. As they walk by in the aisles. I like those smiles. All the masking covered them up, and maybe missing them was part of what made us cranky.
To get a sweet smile you have to catch someone’s eye, and maybe smile yourself. I got one yesterday as I left a grocery store in Dripping Springs where I had stopped for vittles on my way home from Houston. A nice lady smiled at my as she was coming into the store and as I was leaving. It brightened my day, which was bright already. It was like a bonus. I think she saw me coming and when I looked up, she smiled. Usually, that’s what I do as I walk around, look at people to see if they’ll look back, then smile when they do. It’s fun.
Of course, I try to do it with people close to my age, so that no one thinks I’m being a creepy old man. But sometimes young people will smile at you for no reason. I guess it happens if they’ve had a good experience with their grandparents. Who knows why they’re doing it? Who really cares? A smile is a smile, and I think we should take every opportunity to dish them out. Like candy. Here’s a smile just for you, a stranger, because we’re all in this together, and maybe you need one right this minute to help chase away a sorrow. It’s an inexpensive gift that can be given on the spur of the moment.
John W. Wilson is the author of the Long Goodbye: A Caregiver’s Tale