Just Smile

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I know a discussion has been had recently on this subject, but my own experiences recently has prompted me to discuss it. Two days ago my daughter and I went to the city. We stopped at the Tim Horton's drive-thru. As we drove away my daughter said, "she never smiles, never has any emotion". My daughter is a moody person but she also used to work at Tim Horton's herself and works with people at her job at the airport for the airlines and for screening. As grouchy as she may be with me, she knows that she has to be chipper to customers. In fact, she is chipper AS a customer as well. There is a woman at the deli counter at my grocery store. Her facial expression never changes. Never smiles. She is not rude, she just seems, well, dead inside. And maybe these people are having a bad day or even struggling with a loss. We as customers have been chipper despite their mood but they don't really change. If they can't make OUR day WE can make THEIR day. But with these two individuals we don't. Recently I had to call customer service at Indigo.ca because I was having trouble with my account and using a gift card online. The people I spoke to (there were two phone calls) were very sober. I was apologizing for being a nuisance and then started laughing at myself and explaining the situation. I finally got a laugh out of one of the women I spoke to. On another occasion when speaking to tech support I was getting frustrated with my computer and myself. I was talking to myself while on the phone with the service rep, I was making jokes. The result was a gentleman who not only laughed along with me, he said that he hoped next time I called he was the one that answered the phone. In retail there are two sides - the customer and the employee. Sure, there are a lot of retail employees who hate their job or are having a bad day, but they are representing the company and should at least TRY to smile. It's amazing how once you smile you will keep smiling. Find something to smile about even if it's a memory. As a customer we should also have the same attitude. I don't get out much, don't deal with other people very often. I would probably be happier if I did get out more and interact with more people - even strangers. Living in this small-ish town (we all call it smallish because it's growing but can't go over 32,000 because that's city status which it has been denied by the government; I don't want it growing any more), just walking down the street some people will smile and say hi. Although the community is small enough that we know a lot of people, we don't know everyone. So having a stranger smile and say hello though a small thing, can be a really big thing to some people. It can also be contagious. I am in Canada but I just thought of Donald Trump and Barak Obama. A big difference visually is that Obama smiled A LOT. He seemed to always be smiling. I think that is one thing that made him so appealing as a President, as a person. A smile is friendly, warm, inviting, uplifting. A smile is love. The world needs more love. The world needs more smiles.