A Smile

A smile can be contagious; however one must be looking to receive that smile. If your head is turned the other way to avoid looking at someone, then the person giving away smiles is for naught, or is it? The giving of the smile doesn't go full circle & the intended recipient does not receive the value if the smile. A simple look of acknowledgement is considered polite, correct? In this day & age some people & possibly some cultures are unacustomed to such heartland neighborly gestures. I'm unsure of the customs around the globe. I'll stay away from that & talk about what it means in the heart of the heartland.

Growing up here in corn country it seems everyone was your neighbor. There was no such thing as looking the other way. You must at least make eye contact or nod out of respect, anything less would be rude or un-neighborly. To put this in a better perspective, back then no one felt the need to lock their doors. Think about that... Not locking you're doors would be out of the question anywhere in the U. S. A. today! So if you're not afraid to to even lock your doors, you would definitely not be afraid to look someone in the eye. That's the problem we have been taught through the progress of changing times to mistrust anyone you don't know. How sad to think that progress has regressed a small town in the heartland to this extent. I'm going to assume that same scenario is associated with modern progress all over the globe. So sad don't you think! It's been reduced so that a cheerful person can no longer give away cheer for everyone to enjoy, if only for a moment to pass on that cheer to someone else. How extremely sad. Whoever said "a smile is contagious" is so very right! Shame it's not practiced as much as it once was. Thanks for joining me here on Glen View.