The 1960s was the decade of flower power.
Of course the power of flowers is still intact, even though it is not à la mode currently.
But there are other powers. One of them seems to be the smile.
Here I admit that I have been let us say “unfavorably disposed” towards the smile. (As towards many other pleasant and positive things, silly me.) Especially the “smiley” was a target of mine. I was of the opinion that the smiley was a thing of low, almost barbarous stupidity, demonstrating how poor and primitive online communication often is.
There is a grain of truth in this; the smiley cannot compete with a lovely, or even ordinary smile. But it does convey an energy. Some of us are more susceptible to the energy of a smiley, others (like me) less so. But it does have a positive (+) charge.
Yes, there are smiles and smiles. There are the ones only involving the mouth and then the real thing, the Duchenne smile.
And I guess this one is real too, in its own devilish way.
But we have devils enough. Let us turn towards the inner smile of Eastern philosophy. I see it as a tool to help us reach positive emotional states quicker and easier, and as next step letting those positive emotions influence more material things like hormones, etc.
Also, the practice of smiling to my knee or heart or foot can be updated to smiling towards other, more remote, “body organs”. Like my neighbor, my cousin, or YOU. Here the smile is inner produced, inner decided and inner directed.
Very probably the inner smile is most efficacious and needed when we have absolutely no urge to smile — swimming against the stream…
Then we have another kind of smile, where things from the outside (pictures, videos, sentences, etc.) make us smile, thus creating Smile Power.
(Talking of power, I´ve always felt that out of two people — one smiling, the other frowning — the smiling one has so much more power. It feels impossible to imagine the smiling person envying the frowning one. But that´s my old personal (frowning) perspective. Those who can´t help smiling might see it differently. But I think I am right and they are wrong .-)
In this case too I have been the sour, sarcastic type, heaping criticism on all the cute animals that are so popular on Facebook and such forums. Well, not on the animals themselves, but on the phenomenon of posting such pictures and getting all exited about them.
And now I will do exactly the same. Or something even worse!
I hope this brought a smile to your face.
What could be worse than this?!? my old frowning colleagues ask. Answer: Pictures of animals that are not only cute but are THEMSELVES SMILING. Twice as bad. Or good .-)
If you want to revel in even more smiling animals, visit the page from which I borrowed the pictures.
Enough of animals. Humans can smile too, at least some of us can. I´ve been wondering why women are so much better at it. Of course there is the trained, rehearsed On-Off smile that is no more than decorative, but many women have fantastic smiles.
That is not the forte of us men. But I have at least two examples here of male smiles (very discreet, close to being inner smiles) that I find very attractive.
Yes, John Travolta sure has smile power. As also has…
the fantastic Gene Kelly.
One might think that gurus and holy men might have great smiles. Maybe. Here are some favorites.
Note the androgynous qualities. These are not “men” but something above that. Talking of which I will end this with a non-smiling but still fantastic picture of Meher Baba. (Or rather, his smile is so inner (innerlig) that you have to be an “innsider” to really see it .-)
