Smiling at each other, smiling to his wife, smile to her husband and their children - no matter who you are smiling, - it will help you feel the most love for people.
Mother Teresa
Many have read "The Little Prince", an excellent book by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. This is a subtle, profound work and children, and adults are encouraged to reflection and meditation. But few are familiar with his other works - novels, stories, and stories.
Saint-Exupery was a fighter pilot, he fought with the Nazis and died in battle. Before World War II, he participated in the civil war in Spain against the fascists. He wrote a fascinating story based on the experiences of those years, called "Smile." That is the story I wanted to tell now. It is not clear whether it was an accident or autobiographical fiction. I want to believe that it really happened.
He said he was captured by enemies and thrown into a prison cell. As a contemptuous look and mistreated by his jailers, he was confident that the day of his execution. From this point on I will tell the story, as I remember my own words.
"I was sure they would kill me. I was confused and very nervous. I rummaged in his pockets, hoping to find a cigarette that could survive after the search. I found one. I shook hands so that I could hardly put it to his lips but I had no matches, they pick them up.
I looked through the bars at my jailer. He was not even looking in my direction. After all, who wants to look at the thing on the corpse. I turned to him:
- You will not find a spark?
He looked at me, shrugged and walked over to the bars to give me a light.
When he approached and struck a match, his eyes involuntarily met with mine. At this moment, I smiled. I do not know why I did it. Perhaps because of my nervousness, perhaps because, when you are close to each other, very hard not to smile. Whatever it was, I smiled. At this moment between our two hearts, our souls ran between the spark. I knew that he did not want this, but my smile leaped through the bars and aroused in him an answering smile on her lips. He lit my cigarette, but not departed immediately, but stayed beside me, looking me straight in the eye and still smiling.
I also continued to smile at him, seeing him now as a person, not as a jailer.
- Do you have children? - He asked,
- Yes, yes, here. - I got my wallet and nervously began to look for photos of my family.
He also pulled out a photograph of his wife and began to explain what plans he had built for the children when they grow up. My eyes filled with tears. I said that I'm afraid that he would never meet with my family and I have no chance to see the older children. In his eyes filled with tears, too.
Suddenly, without saying a word, he unlocked his cell and silently led me out of it. Then out of jail and - in secret, back yard - from the city. There, on the outskirts, he let me go. Not saying a word, he turned and headed back to town.
So my life was saved by a smile. "
Yes, smile - a genuine, unplanned, natural connection between people. I told this story, because I wanted people to realize that under all the layers of which we create to protect ourselves - our dignity, our titles, our degrees or our status and the need to ensure that we have seen such, what we want - all that lies beneath our authentic selves. I'm not afraid to call it a soul. I truly believe that if this part of you and this part of me could recognize each other, we would never have become enemies. We could not then hate and fear of another, or envy him. I sadly conclude that all these layers, which we have for life so carefully surround themselves, alienates and isolates us from real contact with others. The story told by Saint-Exupery, says that magical moment when two souls recognize each other.
I experienced a few such moments. One example - when I fell in love. And when I look at the children. Why do we smile when we see kids? Perhaps because we see someone without any protective layers, someone whose smile, turned to us - sincere and guileless. And the soul of the child in the depths of us dreamily smiles at this meeting.
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