Smile - It makes people wonder what you're up to

A couple of topics on my mind today. First, we had a strange encounter at the dollar store today. I loaded up the kids to buy them various goodies to amuse themselves (yes, I realize they are a little old, but there you are) and we wandered aimlessly around for about an hour. I was in the sort of mood where I just said yes to everything.

Then we got to the back of the store where we came across another customer. This man was just standing there shopping, then he turned around and grinned and Sarah and me. Was he flirting? It's been so long, I couldn't tell! And who was he smiling at, her or me? I didn't know whether to tell him, "knock it off, you pervert!" or "sorry, but I'm married." So I just sort of nodded at him and moved on.

But as we got to the check out counter, who should be behind us but Mr. Smiley! And he was grinning the whole time. Not just a smile, but a big grin with teeth showing and everything. It was very odd.

As we got out to the car, I told the kids about this guy and we all tried to come up with reasons for his excessive happiness. He'd been to the dentist and wanted to show off his newly clean teeth. He was a crazy stalker. He really was flirting. It was a social experiment, designed to see how long it would take someone to punch him in his teeth. (not too long, IMO) Randy suggested it was the Botox.

But it got me thinking about smiles, and the reasons we smile. We smile to say hello, to say thank you, I love you, I'm sorry. We smile when we're happy, surprised, even uncomfortable. We smile to acknowledge someone else's smile. We smile when something is funny or silly or touching. Sometimes we smile because we just can't help it. I smiled my whole wedding day. I know I did, because I saw the home video afterwards, even if I didn't realize I was smiling at the time.

And smiles come in different shapes too. There's the smile that doesn't even involve the lips, just a mere hint of humor about the eyes. Then we can curl the lips, the closed mouth smile. And sometimes we show it all - teeth, gums, everything. I am especially fond of the big smile of an infant with no teeth at all!

But we don't often walk around with a smile for no reason at all. Which makes this guy's behavior even more disturbing. And what really bugs me is that I'll never know what the story was! Weird.