Smile

Over a dinner of chicken masala and naan this past weekend, a friend bluntly informed me that I smile too much. Me. Kate Musgrave. Smile too much. …Right. Take that, those who say cynics are really just pessimists in denial. There was really only one way for me to respond, though: another, more bemused, smile, quickly breaking into full-out laughter.

Just for comparison, as I stood waiting in the student union building one day, getting some quality thinking time in, another friend had approached me with a look of concern and asked why I was sad. I wasn’t sad, I reassured him, I’m simply not in the habit of wandering about with a smile plastered on my face. People might start to think I was a bit… off.

In places like DC especially – which is where I spent this past weekend and, consequently, where I was found to “smile too much” – one certainly is looked at askance if caught randomly smiling. None of this silly, small-town-inspired smiling, making eye contact, meandering down the street, etc. No no, we are to walk quickly, stand silently, and pack together on the Metro while avoiding eye contact or smiling as much as humanly possible. Kind of like the opening scene in “Metropolis,” but less creepy.

To be fair, sure, there’s a chance I’ll think you’re a bit odd if every time you walk by me you have some mysterious smile on your face, because not even Julie Andrews smiles all the time, even when thinking of her favorite things. I might also think you’re a bit mean spirited if you never smile, though.

Perhaps if I’m smiling “too much,” it’s because my accuser was including smirks and more bemused looks than anything else, which are fairly common in his presence as I marvel at the odd and/or unexpected scenes I sometimes find myself a party too. Take, for instance, that evening, prior to the over-dinner accusation: 27yr old Cuban, 24yr old Iranian Kurd, and a 42yr old Iranian Kurd (a KDP rep. in the US, no less), sitting around a counter together and alternately discussing renovations, the origin and production of Milka chocolate (internet search yielded Germany, though wrapper notes only Austria), and a recent trip to visit family in Iraqi Kurdistan. Hard not to smile and shake my head at the whole scene.

In any case, as with anything, life has its ups and downs, and experiencing both is part of the game and the challenge, eh? Some smiling, some smirking, some straight-faced Metro-ing, some not-so-much-in-the-mood-to-smile-ing. Ideally, heavy on the smiling.