Author Archives: Gabriel Lawson

The Negros Chronicle – News around Dumaguete City and Negros Oriental, Philippines ?? Post Topic ?? Is smiling now vanishing?

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by: FR. ROY CIMAGALA

A NUMBER of people are now wondering about that. In fact, even Pope Benedict recently referred to this observation. People worldwide seem to be smiling less. In its place, we are seeing an increase in tension, nervousness and irritability such that many people are now talking about the need to learn anger management.

If people smile nowadays, its most likely in the shallow level. In the media, for example, the elements of smile seem to be observed only in the sports and entertainment sections. They are seldom observed on the front page or on the Op-ed page.

We really do not know up to what extent this observation is true. But it cannot be denied that even if its factuality is limited, it already evokes pity. Smile is a wonderful human treasure that should not be allowed to wane, let alone, lost.

I googled some sayings about smiling, and I got a good number that reflect the many amazing facets of this human gesture. Here are a sampling that I bet will amuse you as they have amused me.

%u2022 A smile is an inexpensive way to change your looks. ~Charles Gordy

%u2022 If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it. ~Andy Rooney

%u2022 I%u2019ve never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful. ~Author Unknown

%u2022 A laugh is a smile that bursts. ~Mary H. Waldrip

%u2022 The shortest distance between two people is a smile. ~Author Unknown

%u2022 You%u2019re never fully dressed

without a smile. ~Martin Charnin

%u2022 Smile – it increases your face value. ~Author Unknown There were a lot more. We need to do something to promote this habit, since it is always good and healthy and produces wonderful effects on everyone.

My personal experience is that a smile helps me tremendously in my ministry. When you smile, people will find it easy to approach you, to connect with you, to be sincere with you. It initiates friendship and develops trust. It is good in breaking the ice between two persons. Its beautifully contagious. You smile at someone and most likely hell smile back. It easily offers bridges over whatever gaps there may be among us. Differences and conflicts are softened and put in condition for calm dialogue.

We have to recover this habit that seems to suffer when the pressures of progress and the challenges of growth and development unavoidably come. For this, we need to understand that what is needed is to ground it in a much deeper foundation.

The main problem, I think, is that we tend to root it on a shallow, shifting ground. We tend to keep it in the material, external and visceral level, held captive in the world of the unreasoning instincts and feelings.

It seems caught in a stunted, arrested stage of development. In other words, to smile, now when there is so much pressure to contend with, is urgently looking for a deeper, more authentic source. It is gasping for a genuine lifeline, not mere palliatives, stop-gap measures and escape mechanisms. It is grasping for its proper anchor and purpose.

If you notice, we usually tend to smile as an instinctive reaction to something sensible, whether soothing, funny, amusing, physically beautiful, etc. Since we were kids, thats how we have been behaving.

Those who are better endowed, that is, with greater intelligence and therefore greater capacity to understand things, can manage to smile at engaging ideas and at the continuing flow of discoveries and realizations.

If you are not that endowed, then it would seem you are doomed, which is unfair and actually not true. I believe everyone, regardless of his endowments, physical, emotional, intellectual, etc., can manage to smile always if he knows where to get its proper impulse. And this can be no other than God. We need to expand our understanding of the dynamics of our smile. We cannot restrict it in the sphere of biology, nor in that of our intelligence. It has to grow and develop in its ultimate and proper milieu of faith and beliefs, where the spiritual and supernatural forces are made to augment, purify and perfect our natural forces.

When this understanding and mechanism are in place, we can manage to smile even in trying and difficult times. Well always find a reason, a forceful reason to smile. For believers in Christ, they know that their smile has to be rooted on Christs Cross. With that foundation, nothing can drive it away. Hardships would only enhance it.

via negroschronicle.com

I think it’s still cool to smile. So does the POPE.

The Land of Troy (A Dime is a Dime)

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At work there is this busser named Troy. He is a weathered ole fella, around 45 or so. His hands are hardened from use and abuse from moving furniture during the day, and bussing tables at night.

Troy smokes cigarettes like someone who has lit a few heaters in his day.

And, eerily, he looks like an older, smaller version of Viggo Mortensen. Strange, but very true.

Every time i see Troy i expect him to shout “Let the lord of the Black Land come forth! Let justice be done upon him!” Like Aragorn does in Return of the King. But he never does, to my perpetual disappointment.

He is one of those guys who is really thin, but strong as a bull. If you look at him, you might think he is frail or weak. But no, Troy typically stacks trays so heavy and so high that they have to weigh 50+ pounds. He is deceptively strong. There is a term for this – Man Strong. Troy is Man Strong.

He was in the Navy for a period of time, and he also used to weigh over 200 lbs. Now he’s probably at 130 or 140.

Troy is a hilariously dry, deep, and knowledgeable ole son of a gun. He’s a quiet fellow, who keeps to himself most of the time. But ever so often he utters some sort of witty quip under his breath. The other night one of the other bussers told him jokingly that  he would “fight him right now.” Troy replied quietly, “well pack a lunch son,” with a wry smile on his lined face and walked away. If i am in a scrap, i want Troy on my side for sure.

Troy goes the extra mile for his servers. He is the best busser they have. I tell him he’s the best only because he’s the oldest. He just laughs at that and says, “good one kid.”

Troy doesn’t mince words. He calls things like he sees it, like any rough codger does. One time he came up to me and said, “The lesbo at 41 needs more lemonade.” And walked away. “Thanks Troy.” I called back.Troy’s not perfect by any means. But neither am i.

The other day I saw Troy spot a dime on the floor like a falcon spots a salmon swimming in a river. So Troy dove at that dime in a manner that the Falcon would be proud, picked it up and looked right at me and said, “A dime is a dime” and walked away. Very true Troy, very true.

A wise man doesn’t forget the value of something as small as a dime.

That is the lesson i learned that night.

Then i thought about God, and how he doesn’t take for granted the value of something as small as a human. Something as small as me or you. Not only does God not forget, but He pursues us, pursued us, with precision and urgency. Like a falcon after a salmon, or like Troy after a dime. But instead of eating us, or putting us in his pocket like the other two examples, God just wants to love us. To protect us.

So in a way, maybe God does want to put us in his pocket.

That was a lesson i needed that night. And God used Troy to tell me.

Later that night Troy gave me a lengthy synopsis of what cabbage does to one’s colon. Which was kind of fascinating, actually. Lets just say i won’t be eating cabbage unless i absolutely have to.

So here is to guys that may be easy to overlook, but if you take the time to notice you will learn about all sorts of wisdom – cabbage or dimes or otherwise.

Double dud: Maria Sharapova and her new dress

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via sports.yahoo.com

My favorite comment about this dress…”Looks like she crashed into a peacock.”

I like Maria, but she looks like she’s wearing some sort of jungle cammo…which is awesome in my book actually. Too bad she lost in the first round of the Australian Open…i was looking forward to what she had next.