Let\u2019s go ahead and get this out of the way. I\u2019m from the south. The Nashville buckle of the Bible belt in all its glory. We smile. We say hi. We hold doors. However, I\u2019m not always part of the collective \u201cwe.\u201d Maybe it was my stint in New York, in a city that squints at an unsolicited smile like, \u201cHey man, whatever you\u2019re selling, I\u2019m not buying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or maybe it\u2019s just me. I walk faster than the general pedestrian \u2013 longer steps at a greater rate formed from years trying to keep up with my father. I talk faster too. The drawl is there, but truncated \u2013 holding on long to some vowels and tossing others. I do smile. But it\u2019s not the megawatt smile that\u2019s as instinctual as a wave below a certain latitude.<\/p>\n

My son though, he could be on the campaign trail. At five, he\u2019ll smile at the garbage can if it looks lonely. Most kids his age are still feeling out their bubble\u2026 needing to be reminded that other kids don\u2019t exist just to steal their bucket. Come on kids, let\u2019s build that sand castle together and make John Lennon proud. My kid though, he\u2019s a smiler, grinner, waver, and hand shaker. He\u2019s never had to be reminded to share. He smiles with his whole face too, chin to hairline. It\u2019s endearing in a way I\u2019ll never be.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This, it turns out, is the most patriotic thing he could do. We Americans are smilers, at least according to The Atlantic<\/a>. Despite the regional disparities, we are, as a country, friendlier than most. When seen from a foreign perspective, we\u2019re the happy Americans, like a cartoon Goofy with an \u201caw shucks\u201d chuckle. Not the most dignified analogy.<\/p>\n

Historically speaking, though, we come by it honestly. We are a nation of immigrants, a conglomeration of multi-syllabic rolled \u201cRs\u201d and \u201cadieus.\u201d We smile because it\u2019s universal. You don\u2019t have to speak the language to read the face. If aliens ever landed, the friendly kind, they\u2019d open with a smile.<\/p>\n

It is no surprise then, that my son, the child with cerebral palsy and limited language, has stumbled upon the best nonverbal form of \u201cI come in peace.\u201d \u00a0It used to bother me, his friendliness \u2013 mostly because it drew me into the limelight as well. To carry him down the hallway was to participate in the endless parade of pageant waves that his mile-wide smile elicited.<\/p>\n

There was never a direct path from point A to point B. We walked the chorus line and did the dance. But if The Atlantic is correct and the purpose of the smile is \u201cto build trust and cooperation, since you don\u2019t all speak the same language\u201d and to signify that someone \u201cwants to be a close friend of yours,\u201d then my son is an advanced species, an evolutionary step past me. He has managed to master a language that his mother, in all her adult sensibilities, cannot.<\/p>\n

When I am in doubt about my son\u2019s future and how he might fare when I can no longer carry him down the hallway, I watch his face breaking like sun across water at each person we pass. And then, more importantly, I watch their faces \u2013 the passersby \u2013 it is the same, sun to sun. He spreads a message that we cannot help but carry on, like Olympians passing the baton \u2013 the grip, and grin, is reflexive. As it turns out, Louis Armstrong was a soothsayer. If you smile, the world really will smile with you.<\/p>\n

*This article originally appeared in Parent.co.<\/a> Linking up on this Memorial Day with Meg<\/a> and Amanda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

Are you a smiler or are you more of an introvert in public? Could you run for public office?
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Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

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Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s go ahead and get this out of the way. I\u2019m from the south. The Nashville buckle of the Bible belt in all its glory. We smile. We say hi. We hold doors. However, I\u2019m not always part of the collective \u201cwe.\u201d Maybe it was my stint in New York, in a city that squints at an unsolicited smile like, \u201cHey man, whatever you\u2019re selling, I\u2019m not buying.\u201d Or maybe it\u2019s just me. I walk …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[86,11,26],"tags":[28,74,55,54,84,100,15],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mom-gene.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/american-flag-802087_1920-e1506102005223.jpg?fit=1920%2C1064&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8ca5p-EE","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2520"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2520"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2543,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2520\/revisions\/2543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}