Two Different Kinds of "Smile!"

No, I'm not talking Candid Camera. Not in the least.

I'm talking about two different encounters I've had with "Smile!" this week. Let me explain...

...Last Wednesday night at a concert, as my friend and I were ducking out before the encore to avoid the rush, a large man with a grizzly beard (yes, Mark, a grizzly beard) stopped me in my haste. A little startled, not the least by the foul order of beer on his breath and now beer breath in my face, I looked up.
"Put a smile on that beautiful face of yours," he said.

I wanted to slap him! I don't know one person who, when they get told by a random stranger to smile then, smiles in fact because of it. Not one! I hate it. It's the first way to make an enemy...in my book, at least. Don't you agree?

Fast-forward two days later. I'm getting on I-94 and, like the bottom of many highway ramps in Chicago, is standing a homeless man. I glanced over at his cardboard sign, if only to oblige him. The note on the cardboard startled me. It wasn't an ask for money or for a prayer. It was an ask for a smile. Not only did I smile, I laughed out loud. He smiled back, then laughed back. Before I know it, while sitting at this red light, blocked only by my window I was laughing out loud with this random, homeless stranger. It felt so good. Just to laugh. That's all he wanted. Not food or money or prayer. Just...simply...to laugh, to smile. It was a truly reciprocal gift.