The strangers face

The strangers face

 

How we quickly judge intent and danger in the face of strangers, but it’s not just the fact that the face is strange it also has to do with the setting we find ourselves in. To some extent I think media and mainstream movies have us formulating personality based on first glances, the cowboy dressed in black, the mug-shot disheveledness  of the perpetrator. So that’s our modern man made so called instinct. But if we change the way we see something , what we see changes, commercials do this all the time changing the music , setting, the whole feel of the encounter to disarm our natural feeling to mistrust, to judge. Allowing them to, interject a suggestion or action. So the question I pose is … if I change the music, setting and context in my mind will I be so quick to judge when the strangers present themselves to me?

 

The cute face

 

 

The cute face

For some reason we all have a strange need to make people laugh, so we crack a funny grin or make an odd face. It’s inherent in us and we don’t even know it, in our childlike ignorance our instinct tells us to test the other person to see if they are a threat. When we don’t receive the required smile or laugh all our shields go up… you know the line” I disarmed them with a smile”. The returned smile lets us know we are among allies, in some cultures the display of anger is so feared as to have the majority so worried it would rather cut the cancerous person away than to live with their unpredictable anger. So unless you want to be ostracised you need to laugh and smile in the most extreme moments , in our north American culture that would be perceived as extremely odd, therefore dangerous. So not all cute smiles are harmless and not all harmless smiles are cute…..

The stoic face

The stoic face

 

Some people have the uncanny ability to accept all that happens to them as if it was divine will or the natural course of things, while other leave no doubt as to the base feelings they are experiencing. Is the universe unfolding as it was meant too ? Or is it self control ! Are these people the seething  volcanoes waiting to erupt ? On closer observation I see a distancing in their eyes, an ability to go to a place in their mind where they have control of the situation like in a dream. I think it allows the mind to deal with crisis in a safe experimental state, evaluating all scenarios and exits and sometimes coming to the conclusion … that’s the way it is and it’s out of my control. Somehow it seems like I’m describing escapism , the neutral  stare and placid look of discouraging acceptance.

I think what we really see is courage…

The peaceful face

The peaceful face

 

There is something about looking into the face of a sleeping child that tells us all is right in the world no matter how cynical we are once we turn away. We see the most vulnerable  individual with the ability to sleep calmly in the hectic busy atmosphere we know too well can be cruel and dangerous. But this child has no knowledge or context to go by, truly ignorance must be bliss. So we gaze upon them and their bliss becomes our understanding, that no matter our own fear and cynicism we have the ability to feel bliss by turning the negativity of our surroundings “ off “ if just for a moment. I am not a meditator  but maybe I should learn , because maybe if I practice, that feeling will stay with me longer or when I need it most…. Perhaps that’s the gift and lesson our infants are giving us.