August 27, 2023

In my childhood room there are, until today, two posters. They are perhaps 20cm wide and 60cm long. The first one has a somewhat bright blue background, and a square picture of a mountain at the top. Below, it says (in white letters): “it is easier to go down a mountain than it is to climb it, but the view is better from the top...”

The second one has a yellow-ish background and, at the top, has a caricature of a boy holding a toy dog (or perhaps a bear, I don't remember). Below it, it says (in black font, smaller than the mountain one):

 A smile doesn't cost anything,

although it is worth a lot.

It doesn't make the one giving it poorer,

and it makes the one getting it richer.

It lasts only an instant

and it stays as a memory, forever.

  There is no one who is as poor

as to not deserve one,

and no one who is as rich

as to be able to live without one.

If you think a smile doesn't enrich you,

be generous and give one away;

for there is no one in more need of a smile

as that one who doesn't know how to smile.

Sometimes (always?) the things you need have been staring at you your whole life.