It's Just an Expression

A friend was demonstrating last night how he is physically incapable of smiling. His mouth is too compact, he explained, and it turns down at the edges.

I wasn't buying it. I've known this man for over seventeen years, and I am absolutely certain I have seen a full range of facial expressions, from deep scowls to broad smiles. But his presentation last night was convincing. He would begin with his mouth in the neutral position, and, upon my command, attempt a smile. He had a point. His lips didn't stretch very far, and he looked like my grandmother used to look when someone would snap a picture of her and tell her to say cheese. Jaw tight, teeth peeking through the small gap in the lips but looking as if they just wanted to go back inside and hide.

This was discouraging to me, to think that my friend of so many years was not possessed of a genuine smile, especially when I can't remember receiving anything that didn't appear to be a warm smiling greeting from him (well, except for the times he was clearly scowling and not very happy to see me). Have I been misreading him all this time?

Hogwash! It's not about the mouth, stupid (I say, speaking to myself, of course). If anyone has seen a baby smile, it makes sense. Babies do the whole body smile, shaking their limbs, jiggling their bellies, crinkling their eyes, stretching their chubby faces into the oddest contortions. Happiness simply radiates from every pore, but if you look at their mouths, they're not necessarily turned up at all. Most of the time, it just looks like they're trying to take a crap. But the feeling is so genuine, all we see is the upturned curve of the lips and the rows of bright teeth, even though your average baby has neither.

For some reason, we were talking about Batman during the whole smile discussion, and the wildly upturned lips of the evil and dastardly Joker sprung to mind. Then I began thinking about the dancing teenage girls at the high school football game the other night, their toothy smiles as gorgeous and technically correct as anything, that is until the music died and it was time to return to their parents in the stands and issue the next carpooling orders.

Like I said, it's not about the mouth, stupid.