Tag: meaning

Don’t Let Your Smile Become a Smirk

“There is a time in your life when smile becomes smirk.”

Slaughter Beach, Dog, “Mallrat Semi-annual”

A smile, a ray of joy caught up in the moment, pure, sincere, a universal sign of happiness.

A smirk, a beam of irony that “sees through” the moment, smug, sarcastic, the tool of the self-absorbed.

To let one’s smile become a smirk is to embrace the false wisdom of cynicism, seeing through all that one believes has failed them as a coping mechanism of sorts. A coping mechanism meant to inoculate one’s self from the fray of life which can be written off as beneath one’s self when convenient. This, in essence, is not a terrible thing, but it can become a terrible thing because it’s easy. It’s easy to tell one’s self that when something doesn’t go your way, it doesn’t matter because it was meaningless anyway. Once this action becomes habitual, there exists no possibility for growth in the individual, for growth occurs when one confronts that which one fears and conquers it. This is the state of the cynic, delighting in “seeing through” everything and smugly smirking.

The cynic, however, is not doing himself any favors by trying to transcend sentiment out of fear of being human. The cynic’s ironic smirk exists as a cheap-version of the sincere person’s smile. The sincere person can recognize that not all things will go their way and this presents opportunities for growth, and by not attempting to to “see-through” any potential failures or shortcomings as devoid of meaning to save one’s self-esteem and not make one responsible, the sincere person can struggle and then overcome. The sincere person by not “seeing through” things can see that there is meaning to all the failures and shortcomings along the way to the goal, which can make the failures and shortcomings tolerable, and sometimes appreciated. The resigned cynic has no meaning to grasp on to, for as noted by C.S. Lewis “to ‘see-through’ all things is the same as not to see”, and when you’re staring into an abyss there is nothing to latch onto.

Rather than embracing the easy way out which leaves one devoid of meaning, it seems necessary to have a dogmatic belief in the value of sincerity.

Don’t let your smile become a smirk, and remember that sincerity is always in season.

On Self-Expression and Laptop Stickers

The contrast between the metal frame of the ~$1,000 Macbook and the ~$2 stickers can be quite humorous.

Update: I no longer fully stand by the snarky ending about “The Office”, for while everyone likes it, it is still a form of self-expression, and the true intent behind this post was to embrace self-expression.

If you’ve ever been in a college library, you’ve probably seen a bunch of college kids’ laptops which by and large are emblazoned with cheap vinyl stickers. The contrast between the metal frame of the ~$1,000 Macbook and the ~$2 stickers can be quite humorous.

I think this juxtaposition points something out to us if we’re looking for it, that is. This being that we often buy more expensive products not for their functionality, but for the “clout” or so that we can “flex” on each other. We try to make their purchases reflect our value to each other as a rule.

However, it is the stickers that we adorn our laptops with that truly reflect our value to each other, for stickers are far more unique than the metal frame of a laptop and the logo on it. The stickers on our laptops reflect what we are interested in, and that’s what truly matters. Just by looking at the stickers on someone’s laptop you should be able to quickly discern what their interests are.

However, if the stickers on your laptop just consist of references to “The Office”, I really don’t know anything about you because everyone likes “The Office”.

I might just be overthinking this. Perhaps a sticker is just a sticker.

P.S. : If you have stickers on your laptop, I’d love for you to reach out and tell me what they mean to you.