Smile, Though Your Heart Is Aching
They were quite a hit as a couple. The cafe owner who had hired them was very pleased at the impact on the patrons of the antics of the waddling comic singer and the graceful dance of his girl. The cafe owner offers the man a steady job on the spot. And just as the man and his muse begin deaming of happily-ever-after, nemesis catches up with them in the form of cops from the juvenile division, carrying a warrant to arrest the girl on charges of vagrancy. Faced with what looks like a crisis situation, the two flee the cafe. See how circumstances alter life in the blink of an eye?
The two spend the night on the road. Comes dawn, and the girl finds herself staring at a bleak landscape and an equally bleak future. Leading life as a fugitive from law was never easy. And top it with having as companion, abject, miserable poverty! "What is the use of trying?" She despairs. "Buck up! Never say die. We'll get along!" The man shakes his fist in the air. That is when the man gives her the classic mantra: "Smile". His words prove to be just the fuel she needed to boost her confidence. Helping her to rise to her feet, the man and the woman start walking on the highway, into the sun rising in the horizon. Smile. I am alluding here to the final scene of the Charlie Chaplin movie, "Modern Times". This scene later inspired the composition of a song.
Smile even though its breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by
If you smile with your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
The beauty of Nature is that we need both, the clouds and the sunshine, in our life in order to appreciate the other. You need the sparkling brightness of the day as much as you need the pitch darkness of the night. The cyclicity of Nature is visible not only in the physical dimensions of the Universe, but is visible also in our life paths. Like a prison, this cyclicity is, there is not one single being in this world who can escape from it. What becomes available today due to one set of reasons gets withdrawn tomorrow for another set of reasons. Gets withdrawn to be replaced by something, or someone, else. The important point here is that the heavy clouds hanging in the sky today will not be there forever. Keep this in mind, smile, for soon the clouds will be dispelled by the brilliant radiance of sunburst.
Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear may be ever so near
That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use of crying?
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
It sometimes takes a lifetime to build something of substance. And a strong gust of adversity is all it takes to reduce it to rubble and ash. Happens so swiftly - in just a matter of moments - that you wonder if it is not one of those nightmares you are dreaming and that you will wake up soon to discover that everything is intact. But no. You are awake and all that has happened, all that is happening, is very real. Very natural it is to weep and cry and feel sad. It is in such dark moments when you must decide to not give up, to not give in. But to learn from what went wrong, to apply the wisdom and the experience gained, and begin the process of rebuild. This is the precise meaning of karma. To rise from the rubble and emerge from the ash, and to work towards building a structure that is more enduring than the last, is what makes it all worthwhile.
though your heart is aching
Smile even though its breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile
It is not unusual to place our love and trust in individuals who turn out to be not so worthy of them after all. People who you so dearly loved and so blindly placed your faith in gave no thought when they treated you with derision and let you down so badly. People whose weight you so happily carried on your shoulders all this while did not feel any tinge of conscience when they took you for granted and walked all over you. It is after the knife has been plunged in the back and the wound has been inflicted, that you realize how you compromised your life and how you short-sold it. And for no return whatsoever. Reeling from the wound, trying to dam the gushing blood, staggering to get up from the ground and regain your bearings, you realize that the only way to go on is to ... smile. These people came into your life because there was a lesson to be learned. And the wound and the blood are the certificate that it has been learnt. Hopefully the learning will come in handy for the next phase of the journey, hopefully one will be more careful henceforth about whom to place one's love and trust in.
that's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use of crying?
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile
Joy and happiness vanish faster than candy floss melts into the tongue. But the bitter taste of the pill of sorrow lingers on. It is the way we are structured - perhaps not a flaw, but a feature of our core genetics -, that we automatically presume that the bitter taste is our lot, and that sorrow and sadness and tears are our destiny. To be happy, to be successful, is extraordinary. "Oh wow! What a miracle that I have achieved success!" - is how we spontaneously react when something good happens. We automatically gravitate towards the shrill din of defeat and self-loathe. But in this cacophony, if you prick your ears to listen, and listen carefully, you can get to hear the whisper of the soul, the soul that has been witness to your struggle across all your incarnations. The whisper advises you to focus on the root basics. The basic that you are alive. The quale that you are breathing in and breathing out, at this very moment. The fundamental that you have a stock of further breaths left. The sage whisper eggs you on to blow away the gloom of defeat and wipe away the soot of self-loathe. And to welcome into life the cheerful energy of optimism and the bouncy enthusiasm of sanguinity. Smile.
And this is the song performed by Michael Jackson to the music composed by Charlie Chaplin. Sit back and enjoy!
Smile. It is the mascot of a successful human being. It is the flag you hoist atop a life that has been well-lived. It is the symbol inscribed on the headstone for a person who had understood the meaning of existence.
[Lyrics of the song by Michael Jackson courtesy http://www.youtube.com/user/ChaplinsViolin.]
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