genuine smiles

People here smile – a lot. It’s a cultural thing, kind of like a uniform, part of the social contract here. With so many people crammed together, one unhappy person can bring down everyone around them with unpleasant results. It is also a defense mechanism of sorts. That smile is a barrier between what they’re really feeling and everyone else. No one wants the entire neighborhood knowing their business. You can tell a “work smile” by looking into their eyes – the smile doesn’t make it all of the way there. I always wonder what they’re really thinking. Sometimes, though, when no one is looking, they really smile. Like a voyeur, I like to catch those – a woman in the park playing with her baby, a man appreciating a good cup of coffee, school children horsing around, an old woman picking beautiful flowers. I sneak up on the construction workers and police officers, before they can plaster on their “work faces,” and flash them a big ole’smile – I get a real out out of them before they realize what they are doing.