Credit for this week's topic goes to a colleague who reminded me of one of the most basic social cues that we have which tends to be universal- Thanks Jo.

Let me begin by reminiscing of the first time our now adult daughter graced us with her first smile. Truth be told, I really couldn't recall the actual moment, but was easily taken back to the emotional joy of the memory of the event. Even though we all know that the first smile generally has nothing to do with a social expression- its fun anyway and the beauty of it is that it doesn't matter- the results are the same- we smile back.

As we grow and become "aware" of our social settings and develop our "understanding" of the world around us, the purity of the smile is sometimes lost in our maturity. Compare the simple experience of an infant smile to the smile of a stranger or business associate and one quickly discovers how adept we can become at taking a universal symbol of happiness and twisting it into some covert operation of espionage.

One thing is certain- whether we initiate or receive, a genuine and pure smile somehow transcends our protective boundaries and prompts another smile.

If we must complicate the experience, it is easy to become engaged in the debate of the smile and whether smiling is harder work than frowning, or whether a spontaneous smile triggers a different physical response than a forced smile, or is it harder to keep from returning a smile than just letting a natural return smile- genuine or not- happen. During an earlier phase of my career, I coached my cross country runners to remember to smile while they ran not only because they looked better in pictures but because smiling affords the event to be experienced differently. I have since been reminded by my wife of the same lesson during life in general. Anyone who has had the pleasure to be around Debbie understands her genuine belief of just being nice is the order of the day and to let others carry the burden of not being nice. Smiling is one of her most used tools.

Maybe it makes perfect sense to apply that to all of our interactions- smile first and ask questions later. Our full range of experiences will prompt a full range of emotions and obviously there will be times when smiling would be inappropriate, but in general it makes good sense to follow the tenets of smiling: keep smiling-they'll wonder what you're up to; you're not fully dressed until you put on a smile; smile and the whole world smiles with you; and the one that prompted this week's article- smile, it adds face value. Thanks Jo, keep smiling.

God Bless,

Craig Taffaro, Jr.