I pondered yesterday about plastic love. Plastic smiles.
“Smiling Faces Sometimes,” a pop song from 1971 told it—Smiling faces, tell lies…
A young man told me when I was also a young man that everyone has a mask. He endeavored at every meeting to remove the other’s mask.
I wondered if our smiles were only a plastic ornament when we greet someone.
What if our smiles, rather than superficial, attempt to mask deeper emotions? Contempt? Despair? Anxiety? Insecurity?
The song continued—The eyes tell the truth.
I’m not so cynical as to think everyone I meet is masking something. I do think that every person needs the respect of our focus and attention. And those times we sense something deeper, perhaps a kind word will work a miracle.
Perhaps we also need to pay attention to our own smiling faces. What are we masking that must be dealt with?
Faith Venture 
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