Word: smile
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...Fritz had graduated from West Point in 2005. Built like a football lineman, Fritz had grown up a Nebraskan farm boy in the town of Verdon, where his graduating class in high school had only 11 students. At West Point, Fritz earned the nickname "Jolly Jake" for his perpetual smile. The soldiers from Fort Richardson grew to like Fritz too. He had the kind of résumé you see among the young élite of the Army's officer corps. But early on, the enlisted men considered Fritz one of their...
...long for the possibility of a connection, the potential for a glance or a smile to blossom into an acquaintance or friendship. The mentality of New York, unlike that of my small California home or even that of Boston, seems to prohibit this kind of unguarded familiarity. The glowing night shrouds the faces of New Yorkers in a blurring veil, making it possible to look at someone without remembering their features. After midnight, people are set apart, wrapped in their own thoughts and concerns...
...sometimes the city feels different. On the subway, a mother plays peek-a-boo with her young daughter. I smile at her older son, and he smiles back. It is the first time I have met the eyes of another person on the subway for a long time. The mother looks at me protectively, and I grin back. Her expression softens, and before she goes back to playing with her little one, her lips tense into a guarded hint of a smile...
This quiet revelation stays with me the next time I ride the subway to work. I wonder what would happen if I smile at the person sitting across from me. The next night, when I slip out with my eyes to the pavement, I think that if I look up, I might see into another person deeply enough, and, completely by accident, find the part of them that might have said to that little girl, “That’s very sweet of you. You’re so kind...
...first, the village children were bashful. They avoided eye contact and, when caught in a visitors’ gaze, twisted their shoulders away as they reluctantly surrendered a smile...