Today is Smile Power Day. I’m afraid the only thing that comes to mind is a bit of doggerel from the First World War:
Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag
and smile, smile, smile.
Strike up a lucifer to light your fag,
Smile boys that’s the style!
What’s the use of worrying?
It never was worthwhile.
So pack up your troubles in your old kit bag
and smile, smile, smile!
When put in perspective, we really have very little to worry about. Consider the life expectancy of an Imperial Roman soldier of the first century CE: Enlists between ages of sixteen and twenty years. Eligible for retirement in twenty to twenty-five years. Chances of making it that long: less than fifty percent. And military service was one of the most attractive careers available at the time.
I don’t smile a lot, and people who do make me suspicious. So when I smile, it’s genuine. And if you don’t have anyone to smile at right now, go look in the mirror. Give that person a smile, and realize that for all their possible faults and foibles, they are actually a pretty decent human being.
And for those of a pessimistic bent (waves enthusiastically at Robin): smile anyway—it unsettles the opposition, making them wonder what you are up to.
Today is Smile Power Day. I’m afraid the only thing that comes to mind is a bit of doggerel from the First World War:
Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag
and smile, smile, smile.
Strike up a lucifer to light your fag,
Smile boys that’s the style!
What’s the use of worrying?
It never was worthwhile.
So pack up your troubles in your old kit bag
and smile, smile, smile!
When put in perspective, we really have very little to worry about. Consider the life expectancy of an Imperial Roman soldier of the first century CE: Enlists between ages of sixteen and twenty years. Eligible for retirement in twenty to twenty-five years. Chances of making it that long: less than fifty percent. And military service was one of the most attractive careers available at the time.
I don’t smile a lot, and people who do make me suspicious. So when I smile, it’s genuine. And if you don’t have anyone to smile at right now, go look in the mirror. Give that person a smile, and realize that for all their possible faults and foibles, they are actually a pretty decent human being.
And for those of a pessimistic bent (waves enthusiastically at Robin): smile anyway—it unsettles the opposition, making them wonder what you are up to.
=^)