Smile
The day I wrote this column, I smiled at approximately 127 people. Many were strangers; a good portion were co-workers; and a handful were my family members. Each time I smiled, I received a smile in return.
Each day I make an effort to smile as I pass through this world. This practice sometimes is flawed, for smiling at a stranger can sometimes lead to an uncomfortable situation. As a resident advisor in college, it was literally my job to smile and be kind to others. A shy, awkward young man who lived in the hall started sitting at the front desk each week as I did my required two hours of service. Each week he moved a bit closer to where I was sitting, but never would speak. I would say hello and smile.
Over the course of the year, he continued to visit the lounge while I was working. The other RA’s and I took him under our wings, including him and helping him to make friends. He slowly began to smile and say hello. By the end of the year, he was hired to work at the desk for the next school year with the understanding that he would have to speak to others. He agreed to try.
I would not be honest if I did not admit that at first the presence of this person was...for lack of a better word...unsettling. His behavior was so out of the realm of what the majority of society would consider normal that it would have been easy to write him off as strange or damaged. I was given the gift of time, and in that time I grew to understand the person. This helped me look beyond the unconventional and have compassion.
As St. Teresa of Kolkata said, “Let us not use bombs and guns to overcome the world. Let us use love and compassion. Peace begins with a smile. Smile five times a day at someone you don't really want to smile at; do it for peace.”
Jay Weinstein is proving that a smile changes perceptions about how a person is viewed. This actor / photographer has created “...so I asked them to smile,” a project conceived to show how a smile transforms an entire face. On his website, Weinstein writes, “It is universal; overcoming religion, ethnicity, class, gender and language. The '...so I asked them to smile' project was conceived to document this transformation clearly, and without pretension.”
Weinstein began this project while on a photography trip in Rajasthan, India. He saw a man he wished to photograph but hesitated because of the man’s expression. He describes the man as having a stony, stern expression. As Weinstein took photos of other people in the village, the original man shouted out for him to take his picture. Weinstein replied, “Smile!”
“And he was transformed,” Weinstein writes. ”His face radiated warmth, his eyes sparkled with a humor I had completely missed. Even his posture softened. I knew then what my next project would be. To document the effect of the human smile on a stranger’s face.”
To view this project is nothing short of amazing. The photos are a powerful statement to how quickly we judge others. And how a person’s true spirit shows through when one smiles.
Links to the “...so I asked them to smile” project can be found on Weinstein’s website, http://www.jaywphotography.com/jay/.
