Smile like you mean it. 03/29/05
Song they keep playing on the radio, never remember the lyrics except for one catchy line of the chorus that goes, "Smile like you mean it."
And this line, it sings though my thoughts throughout the day, interspersed between my musings and the background noise. I remember the simplistic notion that if you smile even when you're feeling blah or worried or sleepy, it may cause you to feel kinda happy. Which actually does work for me sometimes. When in a mild funk, smiling lifts the spirits a little. If I can coax my face into doing it and not grimacing maniacally instead.
The song also brings to mind the fakeness that everybody has to assume at times. "I can't stand you, please shut up, but here I am, having to smile like I'm happy to see you and interested in this drivel you keep blathering at me."
A related observation: Some people are painstakingly polite to everyone, hiding true feelings for years and years behind false friendliness.
My own current take on things:
Life is too short to try and be friends with people who don't appeal to me. I'm gonna hang out with cool people that I have things in common with, who are easygoing and fond of drinking or smoking and dancing and partying and camping and going out to dinner. There will always be obnoxious people that I have to deal with, putting on that fake smile because they are co-workers or people that my friends strangely keep inviting to parties or the landlady and so forth, but a person can choose their friends, and I'm not gonna bend over backwards to try and befriend someone who has always rubbed my fur the wrong way.
I am actually in good spirits today. I guess I just need to force myself to relax more. If I ruminate constantly over every aspect of the slightest uneasiness about my job or my financial situation or my eating habits I'm just driving myself mad and upsetting myself needlessly. I need to be less introspective and analytical for a few days.
