The power of the smile

After Thanksgiving dinner, I wanted to follow a time-honored tradition and take a nap, but I found myself corralled into another time-honored tradition of going through family photo albums with my kids and recalling the good times, the bad times and the times when someone made a fool of themselves, usually me. Don’t you love family photos?

With the advent of digital photography and cellphone selfies, we often get photographed against our will … or against our better judgment. Some photos will surely pop up in five or 10 years and keep us from getting a job or force us out of a job or cause absolute mortification when the grandkids look at them with secondhand embarrassment and gulp, “Is that REALLY you, Grandpa?”

I hate being photographed. If I were a Kardashian, things might be different. The Kardashian klan is as addicted to their images as Narcissus and spends many of the waking hours taking photos in skimpy outfits with various body parts hanging out.

I’ve never had the desire to take a selfie or post a photo on social media. I’m usually the guy behind the camera. Nevertheless, my kids always manage to stumble upon some black and white relic of me they unearthed from a box in the attic. (You see, I was born before color photography, cellphones and central air conditioning.)

This year as they were leafing through albums and getting their yucks, I found myself in a cringeworthy situation because of one photo, in particular. My daughter had a snapshot of me when I was 14, wearing a sport jacket with high-water pegged pants, a pencil thin necktie, penny loafers and white socks. Does that outfit sound familiar to you? If it does, don’t admit it because you’re dating yourself and people will realize that despite what you say, you’re almost as old as Donald Trump but not quite as old as Nancy Pelosi.

The outfit, however, didn’t embarrass me. I was embarrassed because my youngest daughter proclaimed to the crowd: “You had that same frown on your face when you were a teenager.”

“That same frown.” Who am I? Bob Newhart? Joey Bishop? Simon Cowell? Queen Elizabeth? Or any of the other notables known for their BRFs.

Guilty as charged. Looking back, I should have smiled more, even if my bottom teeth are crooked. You see, people remember smiles, but they want to forget frowns.

In those days, I never realized I had a frown frozen on my face.

Otherwise, I would have forced myself to smile … even though people with a built-in frown have a harder time smiling. It takes a conscious effort and your facial muscles have to work overtime because they’re struggling to overcome the natural contours of your grumpy mouth.

But now I force myself to smile for the greater good of humanity. When you have a permanent frown, people assume you’re angry or unhappy and that you want to spread that anger and unhappiness around like COVID in a world that’s already suffering from too much anger and unhappiness.

The “new me” smiles. At least I try. I smile at friends, family members and strangers. I even smile at babies because if I frown, they’ll start bawling and their parents will grab them and run.

I’ve become a regular geezer version of the smiley face. (You know those emojis with big grins? Well, I developed one of my own. It has a broad grin and a bald head.) In the new year, I’m committed to smiling more even though it doesn’t come naturally.

You see, I was inspired by an article that said three out of four people believe their day is brightened when someone smiles at them. A study in Great Britain showed that 28 percent of the 2,000 respondents say a smile is better than a gift and 26 percent say it beats receiving praise at work. (Most of us don’t even know what it means to be praised at work.)

Sixty percent said having someone smile at them increases their confidence, while 52 percent said it makes them happier. Furthermore, a smile ignites an emotional chain reaction, inspiring people to spread good will to others.

It was Mother Teresa who said, “Smile at each other. Smile at your wife, smile at your husband (Sure it’s hard but give it a try it) smile at your children, smile at each other — it doesn’t matter who it is — and that will help you to grow in greater love for each other.”

This unassuming saint of Calcutta, who worked with the sick and the dying, also said, “We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.”