Transformation

I was walking down a hallway at school between classes. It was late in the week, I was pooped. The only thing I was thinking about was getting home, shucking my shoes and slipping into a novel as a prelude to dreams. Few students were around. Most were in classrooms, trying to pay attention.

Coming toward me was a girl, long dark hair framing her face. She was looking down, carrying some weight of sadness or fatigue or worry. She looked like I felt. She looked like a large percentage of our culture felt. ‘The world is too much with us, late and soon.’ Some instinct, perhaps empathy, perhaps lowly duty pushed me to smile at her as we came closer through the dimness. Glancing up she, noticed me coming, smiling. She responded her face breaking into a shy grin, showing her teeth, responding to the bit of brightness walking toward her.

It was an amazing thing to see. She became beautiful, transformed. It lit her. A window opened on some bright place in her and let an internal light shine through. As she passed me her head tilted up as she looked ahead down the hall.

It occurred to me that I carried the same weight she did, or a similar one. It also occurred to me that though I could never be as beautiful as she, I could do a lot toward improving the scenery. I’ve heard, when we smile, we literally improve our mood. It releases pheromones. We become happier from the evidence of happiness we display. Talk about acting our way into feeling!

Too often we’d rather display our misery, wearing the burdens we carry like badges of honor. Do we want others to share our pain? Or are we simply proud of it? Or is it simply a habit, like a slouch? Standing up straight is better for our back, more attractive, lets us breathe better, allows us more energy, and still we slouch. Maybe frowning’s simply lazy.

But perhaps there’s a darker basis for this. Imbedded in the choices we make everyday are the options of energy and entropy. Alfred North Whitehead posited that when we make such a choice toward energy we allow the nature of God to become more real. And when we choose the other… Perhaps that is the true nature of Evil, allowing our potential to slide into chaotic entropy.

So, our mothers were right, “Stand up straight!” “Smile, frowny-pants!” The rule is, listen to your mother.