Smile, and the world smiles with you...

Does your mind wander during the sermon at church. Don't get me wrong. Mike is one of the best preachers around, but when I am at both services I start to daydream the second time around. And today's topic was somewhat racy. I have joked before that sometimes when I try to daydream my mind starts wandering, but that kind of happened today. For instance, I was sitting the pondering just how many pitch pipes might be in the Abilene landfill when I looked at the back cover of a book on sexual sin from which Mike was reading (I was sitting on the front row). The picture of the author was one wherein the writer seemed downright gleeful. So, my mind went to what makes us want to smile for pictures. Consider other book jackets, for example. Often the writers look very deep in thought, as though either pondering another passge in their book or going to the bathroom. Or what about school pictures? Michal Kate actually stuck her tongue out for one of her early pictures and we bought that package with more enthusiasm than if she had been a child model (That's what she usually looks like anyway). We just loved the memory of what a stinker she could be. And that's the point behind pictures, I guess. To capture memories. Which is why we smile, I suppose. We want to manipulate those memories more than we want to capture them. People threaten their kids with punishment if they don't smile. We are all familiar with the forced smiling brought on by saying "cheese." I just wonder what other things we might try to get people to take on a certain expression. That might be a fun experiment. Perhaps next time instead of a smile I'll try to get someone to give me "shocked." Maybe I could tell them how many pitch pipes are in the Abilene landfill.