Project Smile

Life's Lessons - Joseph Mattappally

I was through the final words of some individuals sentenced to death. There I could find a man (Harrison Gibson - hanged in 1917), who smiled to death. He said, ‘‘They can’t kill a smile!’’ Those were his last words. Most statements, of the convicted, according to Robert K. Elder (Last Words of the Executed,) fit somewhere into some stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. The Gibson theory that a smile can never be killed kept scratching my thoughts for a while. I asked myself, ‘what is so special with this expression?’

There is the story of few people who were asked to share what they love to hear others speak of them, while they are packed in coffins. There came in different opinions. A bright guy is said to have stated that he wants to hear somebody say, “Look, he is breathing….!” There spread a smile, easing the tension hovering there. As I grew more and more enthusiastic to learn about the possibilities of a smile, I could learn that even a simple gesture of it changes the nature of the moment into something pleasant. Like a wild fire, a powerful smile transforms the whole environment into a distinct mood, in no time. I remember the story of a college student. The last project of a Sociology Degree class was ‘Smile’. All students were asked to go out and smile at three people and document their reactions. A lady student but documented her own reaction of a big smile, a very poor guy offered her, as she gave him a free breakfast. Any smile, if it is the true expression of genuine passions within, is as powerful as a dynamite. But how many of us use this powerful weapon to scare off the stress and tension in and around. A smile can change things …… a smile can create things …… A smile is neither paid nor taxed; what if we consider this as part of our daily chorus? 

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