Why Smile When You Can Scowl


Somebody once said that us Filipinos’ default setting is a smile. I agree.
I actually have several friends whose instinctive response to being surprised is to smile. I don’t really know how that would work, like for example if one is surprised in a dark alley by a mugger. Could one smile one’s way out of that? I don’t think so. 

But smile when surprised they do; I’ve seen them do that hundreds of times. I—whose settings range from inscrutable (like a Shaolin monk in a kung fu movie who's just a suit away from being Superman) to downright scowling at no one in particular—am always surprised and mystified every time I see them smile at a stranger who approaches them for any particular reason.  

Stranger: Excuse me sir [we are also polite; we call everybody sir— or ma’am, as the case may be], what time is it?
Friend: (Smiling as if Scarlett Johansson had offered to have sex with him) Six po.
 
Why would they do that, why would they smile at total strangers? Strangers can do a lot of nasty things to you, didn’t they know that? You’d think we live in a world where the characters are from Disney movies, and the bad guys were somehow left out. 

The world is an unfriendly place, people! 
Just look at these two!
Take those people who use commuter trains. They’d crowd the train doors so that those who are trying to get off would have to fight his or her way out of the train. You have to push and shove and make like a fullback charging the goal line.
I don’t think those people standing in front of train doors will part and make way for you if you smile at them. You’d just look stupid. 
And you’re lucky if you manage to get off the train with your wallet or your cell phone still in your possession. Commuter trains are haven for thieves. Also, ask the women who regularly ride these trains about their experiences here, and they’d most probably have very low opinions of their male co-passengers. 

I can think of a thousand reasons for us Pinoys to be angry about, to be scared of, to worry, and other concerns where smiling is not appropriate.  Yet we still manage to always smile, even after a devastating typhoon; heck, we don’t need a reason to smile.
Fuck you, reason to smile! We don’t need you. 
We really don't, do you hear me, huh? HUH?
That, or our reason to smile is different from the rest of the world’s.

Comments

Post a Comment

So, what do you think? Post it here:

Popular posts from this blog

Vincent

Image
Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings are valued today at hundreds of millions of dollars. One of the world’s greatest painters, he is also one of the most influential figures in Post-Impressionism art. Ironic, because nobody wanted his paintings when he was alive.  He was a “weirdo” and nobody really understood him. Except for the few friends he had with other struggling, unsuccessful painters, one of whom he quarreled with, a quarrel that resulted in Van Gogh cutting off his ear with  a razor.  He also suffered from delusions and had psychotic breaks. He seldom ate and drank heavily. He was one of those tortured souls who had so much to give but was largely ignored. His genius and artistry nobody really got while he was alive. He was an idealist, a sensitive soul who had too much empathy. Imagine somebody like that living today.  At age 37, Vincent Van Gogh - struggling with depression, mental illness, and thinking that he was a failure - killed himself.  You...
Read more

86-Year Old Man Tells His Life Story

Image
Sometimes, we find something in the internet that makes us smile, something that touches us, and makes us feel happy, even for a brief and fleeting moment. Whoever this old man is, his account of his life throughout the years, told in rage comic, made me shed a few manly tears. And as this is November , he reminds of my own father.  Click here for a larger image: 86 years old...
Read more

The Square Cube Law and How It Killed Giants

Image
We are so used to the idea of giants that we take it for granted that they exist, or must have existed at one point in our history.  You know, those very large and very tall human-like creatures, carrying a humongous club, and being very nasty. Like this: And if you are a typical, god-fearing Catholic Pinoy, you would swear that not only are they true, you even saw one beside that big-ass, scary-looking tree not far from your home, one night when you were going home after an evening of binge-drinking with your buddies. And the bastard’s smoking a cigar as long and as big as your leg! Or you know someone who saw one of those cigar-smoking monsters. This creature is called a kapre —a cigar-smoking giant wearing a loincloth. Or maybe a tikbalang —a half-man, half-horse creature about as tall as a kapre. Unlike a centaur, however, a tikbalang is a giant with the torso and arms of a man, and the head and legs of a horse.  Scary creatures, these—and...
Read more

From Cross-stitching to Explosions

Image
Misis Djyli is the username of a young housewife who, for the past few months, had been uploading her cross-stitching projects on YouTube. It’s her hobby, and clearly she loves it—you can hear the happiness in her voice as she presents her cross-stitches. I am not an expert on cross-stitching, but hers look beautiful, at least according to the few comments on her YouTube channel.   Here's one of her earliest uploads: Almost nobody watches her cross-stitching videos, but it didn’t seem to bother her—she just kept making and uploading them.   Her latest video, however, has currently over a million views, and it does not show her cross-stitching. It shows her town being bombed, and her normally happy voice is gone.  She is crying and sounds very afraid on the video, and you can hear a baby crying in the background. The woman, you see, lives in Ukraine. She lives in a town called Kramatorsk, and the town was recently attacked by Russians (or perhaps ethnic Rus...
Read more