A Year of Blogging: October 7, 2011

October 7 is 'World Smile Day'. It's time to show your pearly whites to the world! Interestingly enough, while reading about this day, I found that the smiley face as we know it (that bright yellow smiling face) was created in the 1960's (although by whom is still uncertain). How did you express a smile before that? I guess you did it the old fashioned way: face to face. Now many of us use the computer smile :) . I have to admit, I think I'm addicted to the computer smiley face. If someone writes something on Facebook or in an email that physically brings a smile to my face, I express it with a computer smiley face. It's not a fake expression, although I worry some people might think it is. It's a genuine reflection of what I am currently feeling. I haven't always smiled. There were those years that I had braces, for instance, when I didn't smile. At least not a smile that revealed my teeth. After the braces came off, my teeth looked like horse teeth, so I didn't smile much for a while. I remember one of my high school friends writing in a yearbook that my smile lights up the room. I thought it was the nicest thing anyone ever said to me. And 20 years later, I still remember that comment. Erich had to do an exam on me the other day for his homework assignment. One of the things he had to do was check my smile and frown. I couldn't frown. It was just too hard and too goofy to try. Finally I thought of something that irritated me and tried that. He thought it was odd that I couldn't frown. Today is the day to let your smile shine! See if you can light up your own corner of the world. It is so much easier to smile than it is to frown.