The Biggest Smile

“I looked up and saw the biggest smile I had ever seen!” – Steve

The Biggest Smile

“I was sitting, elbows on my knees, hands covering most of my face and I was filled with despair.   My position had me looking down.  That’s why I noticed his worn, ragged shoes before anything else!”  Steve said to me while sitting in the front passenger seat of my car.

We were talking about how each person’s adopted attitude changes his or her life experience while asking if he had ever told me about his own attitude changing experience.  I said no and share he did!

Steve left his home in the United States more than thirty-five years ago and was working in Korea.  “I had everything then.” Steve said.  “I had no worries about money and no other entanglements holding me back.  I was fully engaged in my work.  Everything was great!”

Yet.  Everything was not great!

“I was feeling depressed.  Depressed!  Even though I was of the opinion I had it all, there I was, sitting there, head in hands, feeling hapless.  Until!  Until, I saw those shoes and everything that came with them.”

What came with those shoes?

“My eyes followed those worn out, ragged shoes up.  Up to tattered dirty pants, a filthy shirt and a threadbare coat.  Then an arm, stubbed at the end, reached out to me in a gesture of asking.”

Steve continued describing his implausible rescuer, telling me that the man’s other arm was not fully developed.  His mouth was almost absent of teeth and he was clearly mentally challenged.  Yet, his smiling face beamed with pure joy!

“When I saw his smile I remember thinking, ‘what am I doing!  I have it all and I’m not happy!  I need to emulate this great man’s attitude!’”

At that moment, Steve reached into his pocket and pulled out every bit of money he had with him as a tribute for the lesson he had just been taught.  He reached out, placing & balancing the money on the man’s stubby arm, and watched.  The great man deftly shifted his arm and allowed his reward to drop safely into his coat pocket.  Then he bowed deeply toward Steve, showing his gratitude.  He left Steve a changed man.  They never met again.

“That smile, the biggest smile, changed my position!  I was no longer sitting there with my head in my hands, filled with despair!  I was looking up!  That man still has me looking up!  I’ll never forget the biggest smile I’ve ever seen!”