Sunday, April 19, 2009
smiling
Trust me on this ok.
Not everyone in the world wants to smile all of the time.
I am one who does not.
I think it's unatural to smile. Sure, it takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown, but frowing is more natural. It's the way the face "hangs". We are not born with a smile on our faces. It's something that's acquired, the ability to smile.
Smiling indicates acceptance. A reward for good behavior. We smile at babies and puppy dogs and kittens to show our approval. We frown when we disapprove.
I neither smile nor frown. My face just is in a neutral pose, without any uplifting corners of my mouth and without my teeth showing. It's the way I am.
Yet some woman I know from church practically accosted me at the supermarket because I wasn't "smiling". She touched my arm and wouldnt' let me go saying I had to smile.
I nearly decked her.
It's my choice to smile or not, and it's my personal space she was invading.
No matter how many times I told her I didn't feel the need to smile she kept insisting that she wouldnt' let me go until I did. I told her that the longer she held on to my arm the less likely it would be that I would smile because her behavior annoyed me.
She didn't take the hint.
What is it with some people? Dont' they know that people have personal boundries?
Apparently not.
She was so upsetting to me I wanted to deck her. But I restrained myself. The next thing she wanted to do was hug me. Oh Lord, save me from such people. Then she said she would pray for me and that I said I would accept, as long as she prayed for me in her home and not laying hands on me.
Prayer is acceptable. Touch is not.
Not everyone in the world wants to smile all of the time.
I am one who does not.
I think it's unatural to smile. Sure, it takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown, but frowing is more natural. It's the way the face "hangs". We are not born with a smile on our faces. It's something that's acquired, the ability to smile.
Smiling indicates acceptance. A reward for good behavior. We smile at babies and puppy dogs and kittens to show our approval. We frown when we disapprove.
I neither smile nor frown. My face just is in a neutral pose, without any uplifting corners of my mouth and without my teeth showing. It's the way I am.
Yet some woman I know from church practically accosted me at the supermarket because I wasn't "smiling". She touched my arm and wouldnt' let me go saying I had to smile.
I nearly decked her.
It's my choice to smile or not, and it's my personal space she was invading.
No matter how many times I told her I didn't feel the need to smile she kept insisting that she wouldnt' let me go until I did. I told her that the longer she held on to my arm the less likely it would be that I would smile because her behavior annoyed me.
She didn't take the hint.
What is it with some people? Dont' they know that people have personal boundries?
Apparently not.
She was so upsetting to me I wanted to deck her. But I restrained myself. The next thing she wanted to do was hug me. Oh Lord, save me from such people. Then she said she would pray for me and that I said I would accept, as long as she prayed for me in her home and not laying hands on me.
Prayer is acceptable. Touch is not.
