Why Do I Smile?

Smile.  Avoid confrontation.  Follow the golden rule.  Be the change.  Try to understand where other people are coming from and don’t judge them for being ignorant a**holes. Okay try not to judge.  There is a Smith’s song that so eloquently asks “in my life, why do I smile at people who I’d much rather kick in the eye?”.   Good question Morrissey; good friggin question. 

Smiling has been said to be contagious and understood in any language.  So why not smile?  I tend to smile at people regularly, often without even thinking about it.  It is almost natural for me personally, to smile at people in passing when we make eye contact.  But sometimes, there quickly comes regret.  It was a miss-fire!  I did not mean to be friendly towards you.  You are not deserving of my offering.  I take it back!  Is it in fact better to not smile at individuals towards which we feel disdain?

Perhaps I was giving the sarcastic smile; the one that slyly says ‘I know who you really are and how you operate’, and I smile at you because I want you to know that I know.  Y’know?  So actually, smiling is good.  But wait!  If my smile is disingenuous then I have subsequently broken the golden rule and have for all intents and purposes, [POW!] kicked ‘em in the eye.  Sigh.

On the other hand, what if they didn't perceive my smile as fake, but as if it were heartfelt?  They received a genuine smile and with it forgiveness or the notion that I have taken the higher ground and truly believe that despite our differences we can be kind to one another and leave our judgments at the door.  Wouldn't that be grand?  I think I will continue to smile.  Will you?  I’m asking…

Who Is Gen Clever??

To whom am I posing these burning questions?

Answer:  A person or persons with answers.

Perhaps an entire generation of such people has yet to be born...  I'm hoping she or they are here and simply have yet to be properly asked the right questions.  Or perhaps Gen Clever is the one doing the asking.

Image courtesy of FreeMediaGoo.com

Perhaps you dear reader are Gen Clever.  Are you a compass?  Is Gen Clever out there, or in here?

I'm asking...

Let's start with the BIG stuff shall we?!

Who, what, when, why, and how.  Right?  The important questions in life:  Who am I? What do I want to be when I grow up? When do I have to know by?  Why is it so important?  How much does it pay??  Decisions and questions and then some…

When I was in grade school I knew exactly what I wanted to be (an astronaut) and pretty much how to get there.  However, being as young as I was, I wasn't as thorough as I could have been in my planning.  It turns out that engineering is really hard, not to mention boring, and being an astronaut is more than floating around in a tin can pushing shiny buttons and drinking Tang.  Also, unless you look a lot like Sandra Bullock, you more than likely won’t successfully fumble your way home if you are the only surviving civilian after a space catastrophe.  Soooo maybe I chose the wrong career?

I can do anything I set my mind to.  That’s what my mama told me.  What she didn't tell me (or perhaps she did and I forgot to listen) is that money sucks and has a paradoxical relationship with happiness.  Money cannot buy happiness, but not having money can buy lots and lots of misery, on credit, at a ridiculously high interest rate.  I grew up with just enough to know that everyone else had a little more, but I was happy nonetheless.  Or maybe that’s why my life’s ambition was to get off this rock.  They never run out of Tang in space. 

I am definitely not unhappy now, but I can assure you that having more money would definitely not make me less happy.  My spouse makes twice the money that I do, but also works nearly double the hours.  So we bring home a lot of those freakish peanut pods that only have one peanut inside the shell.  (Same amount of work for only half the reward).  I feel like there exists somewhere a secret balance; a mystical percentage if you will, that allows people to work a realistic schedule and earn enough money to pay the realistic bills, maintain a realistic social life, and put away for those future days of retirement bliss; you know, realistically.  Who can do the math?  What are you waiting for?  When will you have this figured out?  Why weren't we told about this sooner (OR why didn't we listen)?  And finally how do we spread the message once the answer is found?

People are being paid millions to catch vermin and air their dirty laundry and bad habits on reality television.  I have no answers, only questions.  For instance, should I have learned to wrestle gators instead of spending all that time in college?  I’m asking…