I was never much of a school yard scrapper. On the other hand, I have always had a fair amount of confidence. Some would call it “cocky” that I wore on my sleeve. That made me a target for some of my classmates who found much joy in school yard scrapping. Until my senior year in High School, I was smaller than most other students. This, for some, made me a sure victory. So when confronted I developed the art of smiling; it became and effective shield that kept me from wearing black eyes to school. I was not a great believer in the old saying “it’s not the size of the man in the fight but the size of the fight in the man.” I had a different old saying: “he couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper bag.” I believed it to have some truth. When I was young, my mother called me Sunny but by around 8 or 10 years of age she seemed to know that it was time to start calling me Jack. This was okay by me but I didn’t give up wearing a friendly face that was now my comfortable companion. I started to understand how smiles open many doors and put people at ease. A smile makes it hard to fight with a guy. I’ve come to some conclusion over my lifetime. What I discovered was the top of my list is to “SMILE.”

1. Smiles are like welcome mats.

2. Smiles never go out of style.

3. Smiles are always in demand and they don’t cost anything to give. You just simply turn the corners of your mouth to the up position from the down position and amazingly your attitude will follow. 4. I usually find the greatest benefactor of a smile is myself. When I smile I’m spreading around some joy and that makes me feel good.

5. Smiles are contagious. So go laugh more, live more and the world will be a better place because you smiled.

See Ya,

Jack