Smile Anyway
Friday, the third of July, I, like many others, had to make that infamous run to the store for last minute holiday prep items. It was also the first day of the mask mandate in our community. While I felt sorry for the lovely woman employee that was assigned her post at the door, sanitizing carts and informing customers masks were required, I couldn’t help but admire her ability to put forth such an upbeat attitude as she verbally encouraged patrons to the rack of masks available for purchase. Confidence was not going to be contained behind this woman’s mask.
A shopping list requiring a full trek from one end to the other of my local Target, allowed a study of behaviors under the newly imposed authority. The boundless spirit of the greeter faded the further in I went into the grocery aisles. The conduct became more and more impersonal as soundless heads bowed, dodging proximities and maximizing distance from one another. Employees faceless eyes echoed a sense of lifeless anonymity. Through deadpan stares into nothingness, one could almost sense the cloud of depression.
In that moment I thought of Father Emil Kapaun and the recorded history of his last days in a prisoner of war camp during the Korean War. Under the most horrific conditions, Fr. Kapaun not only sustained the lives of his fellow prisoners in what was designed to be unbearable circumstances, but he instilled a spirit of resilience in a place deemed to be a death camp. In the foulest of environments, he gave them fundamental lessons that would carry on past his last breath and help them survive.
The most hideous of situations to endure were the lice. So bad that left unchecked, they would suck the blood of the imprisoned soldiers until they died. Fr. Kapaun told them that they must continuously pick them off in order to live. But the morale of fatigue and malnourishment would eventually overcome these men, and one by one they would cease the effort, almost in the form of a suicide. Then he instructed them differently. He told them each man was responsible for the man next to them, and so on. When they realized their role to save one another, they did not quit. It made me grasp that ultimately, especially in the worst of times, we are our brother’s keeper. Our own lives become better by fostering the mental fortitude of our fellow man.
Yes, these masks feel like imprisonment. Like it or not, there is a war on civility right now. Our viewpoints are as mixed and complex as our personalities. In spite of our independent feelings regarding the masks, personal freedoms or respect for each other, I think could agree that we all want to be seen as individuals, not the burdensome impression of autonomous zombies.
I am not writing this to express opinion of the right or wrong, belief or disbelief in the use of masks. Not this time. Something more important is at stake - it is our personal response to each other and the power of a smile. We think that since no one can see it, it doesn’t matter. Yet, science has proven that the physical act of a smile that extends to the eyes, actually releases endorphins. Those endorphins are a chemical that actually improves our attitudes and responses. It was obvious in the disposition of the greeter at the entrance to Target. Her actions, even though only witnessed through her eyes, and heard through a covered voice, changed the attitude of those entering the store.
If we are to survive the veil of depression and the non-communal existence that seems to be overcoming our strength of character, we must fight back even in the smallest of actions.
When I made that final turn at the back aisle of the store, I had enough. I knew it was time to speak to these people passing by. It didn’t matter whether the least of these had an argument for, or against the cloth on their face. I was determined to force some kind of acknowledgement of humanity in the silence. Observations without actions only further submit the spirit into autonomy. I began to think of the words of St. Teresa of Calcutta. “Do it anyway.”
As a matter of opinion, I would think she would be standing in the doorways telling us to “smile anyway,” “sing anyway,” “spread good will, anyway.” Isn’t that what every man and woman of God is called to do?