puppetmaker | LJ Idol Season 6 Topic 3 Smile

This is my entry for the third week of the LJ Idol. I have cut it for length and subject material. Nothing NWS (not work safe) but I do talk about depression which I know is a topic that some people would rather avoid.

I can’t remember the first time I heard the song Smile. Given my parents record collection that had a little bit of everything, I am betting that it was some Saturday morning while my mother was cleaning. She always played music while she worked when I was a kid.

It made me happy and sad all at the same time but I didn’t understand why because the song was called Smile It wasn’t until years later when I read through the lyrics that I understood why I had such mixed feeling about one song. On the one hand it is encouraging you to smile but on the other it is encouraging you to smile during extremely hard and sad times in your life when your impulse very well might to do anything but smile.

It seems rather harsh to tell someone who is sad to smile and to hide what is going on inside but it happens all the time. How many times have you heard “It takes more muscles to frown than to smile” in an overly cheerful voice? Or “Smile, it can’t be that bad’? It bothered me when I was a child and it still annoys a small part of me as an adult. Why can’t we just show on our faces how we feel? Why must sadness be hidden behind the mask of cheerfulness? Maybe because we made it the social norm like answering the question, “How’s it going?” with the perfunctory “Good” or “Well” rather than saying what might really be on our mind. We know that the question is only polite conversation so we respond with a polite reply as not to burden the person with our problems.

But there is another part of the song that is all about hope for the future. That things maybe bad now but they will get better. There may be clouds now but eventually the sun does come through if you can just hold on for the change. The lyrics acknowledge that things are bad now. That there is hurt and sadness within and this is part of the human condition. But happiness is also part of the human condition and it is just out there maybe just out of reach but some day it will come into reach. There are days that it seems impossible that we will ever be happy again but, in time, we find ourselves smiling on our own rather than forcing a smile onto our face.

I have experience this myself over the years. There were times in my life that I really couldn’t see anything but clouds and darkness. There are times that I have been at the bottom of a deep dark well of despair. And there have been a few times that I have tried to end it all. But I am still here and those dark times don’t seem as bad as they felt at the time.

But eventually the sun did come out and my life did get better. I kept smiling until I was really smiling because I was happy again. Right now I am doing OK. My life is not perfect but nor is it a total mess. I am sad at times, frustrated at time, but I am also happy and content. So when those clouds come in, I try to remember that there is sunshine in my life and good things. I smile and I feel a little better.

I was surprised to learn that the music, which is in stark contrast to the words, was composed by Charlie Chaplin the silent film star for his film Modern Times.

I leave you with the lyrics to Smile and suggest that if you have never heard the song, that you look it up on youtube. There are several videos with Nat Cole singing this haunting song.

Smile
Theme Music for Modern Times
(Music by Charles "Charlie" Chaplin -- Lyrics by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons)

Smile tho' your heart is aching,
Smile even tho' it's breaking,
When there are clouds in the sky
You'll get by,

If you smile
thro' your fear and sorrow,
Smile and maybe tomorrow,
You'll see the sun come shin-ing thro' for you

Light up your face with gladness,
Hide ev-'ry trace of sadness,
Al -'tho a tear may be ever so near,

That's the time,
You must keep on trying,
Smile, what's the use of crying,
You'll find that life is still worth-while,

If you just smile...

I hope you like this and will vote for me when it comes up at the end of the week