farmdoc's blog post number 79

Allen Funt. Remember him? He’s the originator and host of the TV program Candid Camera, and inventor of its famous catch phrase ‘Smile, you're on Candid Camera’. Wikipedia defines a smile as a facial expression denoting pleasure, happiness or amusement; with happiness a smile’s most frequent motivating cause. The belief that it takes fewer muscles to smile than frown is bulldust, apparently. But who cares? Also a smile is heard and not just seen, which is why call centre staff are trained to smile at all times, especially when callers are angry. Last Saturday sweetheart Vivienne and I visited her mother in her nursing home. We arrived at lunchtime, and she was seemingly emotionally unresponsive: glum, frowning, lips pursed between mouthfulls of food. And so she remained for about 15 minutes. Then Sweetheart Vivienne’s father arrived, and the moment he entered the room his darling wife of 65 years smiled. Beamed, really. Face lit up; eyes crinkled with delight; hands reaching out for his; lips again pursed, only this time for a kiss. Though entirely non-verbal – indeed silent – that was the tenderest, most touching, most poignant, of moments. Almost too private to be witnessed. That smile – that non-forgeable signature of transcendental love – will remain imprinted on my mind for the rest of my life. No camera required.