|
I just saw a program on Botox
treatments, and boy does that look weird. No matter how many books
I read on the subject of beauty, it's still hard to understand
the extent that folks will mutilate themselves for the sake of
it all.
Although I personally would never get a treatment such as that,
I don't want to discriminate against those who would. I hear that
one of the side effects is the inability to show a variety of
expressions. To help those who may, during their treatment period,
forget why a smile is a good thing, I turn to this excerpt from
Bits of Talk About Home Matters. Just doing my
part for society.
The
purely natural smile . . . is seldom seen in adults; and it is
on this point that we wish to dwell. Very early in life people
find out that a smile is a weapon, mighty to avail in all sorts
of crises. Hence, we see the treacherous smile of the wily; the
patronizing smile of the pompous; the obsequious smile of the
flatterer; the cynical smile of the satirist. . . . All such smiles
are hideous. The gloomiest, blankest look which a human face can
wear is welcomer than a trained smile or a smile which, if it
is not actually and consciously methodized by its perpetrator,
has become, by long repetition, so associated with tricks and
falsities that it partakes of their quality.
What, then, is the fine art of smiling?
If smiles may not be used for weapons or masks, of what use are
they? That is the shape one would think the question took in most
men's minds, if we may judge by their behavior! There are but
two legitimate purposes of the smile; but two honest smiles. On
all little children's faces such smiles are seen. Woe to us that
we so soon waste and lose them!
The first use of the smile is to express affectionate good-will;
the second, to express mirth.
Why do we not always smile whenever we meet the eye of a fellow-being?
That is the true, intended recognition which ought to pass from
soul to soul constantly. Little children, in simple communities,
do this involuntarily, unconsciously. The honest -hearted German
peasant does it. It is like magical sunlight all through that
simple land, the perpetual greeting on the right hand and on the
left, between strangers, as they pass by each other, never without
a smile. This, then, is 'the fine art of smiling;' like all fine
art, true art, perfection of art, the simplest following of Nature.
Source: Bits of Talk About Home Matters
~ pp. 166-67 ~
Home • About • The
Book • Advice • Abiblog • Bookshelf • Contact
|