Smiling

After reading Melissa Edgington’s Your Mom Has A Blog titled “Behind the Smiles,” it really got me thinking back to when I was growing up and how I was raised. The article definitely struck a personal chord with me as most of her articles tend to do. I look forward to reading them each week.

The article was about how we smile, even though things are not always that great. When I look at social media and the news, it makes me wonder if more and more children are not being raised to smile through the bad times as I was. There seems to be a truckload of people always whining about things lately or complaining.

I was raised to ‘never let em’ see you sweat’, as I put it. Dealing with my debilitating and torturous A.S. over the last 30 years, I have become a pro at hiding my bad days. I was raised to not talk about the bad that is going on with myself and never complain in public, although I do from time to time slip.

I wonder how many others are raised this way. It is just part of good manners to me. But should it be? How can others help if they do not know anything is wrong? I also learned through church and the Boy Scouts to always help others.

I hate to speak of what I consider a weakness, but I have found that it could help others in some way when I speak about my A.S. (Ankylosing Spondylitis), I am not supposed to lift more than 10 pounds or do anything that could be jarring to my spine. Several areas of my spine and body have fused together due to the damaging effects of A.S. The reason I brought the subject up is because when someone asks for help-- say moving or any number of strenuous things, I have to either explain why I cannot help or just help and deal with weeks of pain and possibly damage to the joints that have fused. It all goes back to not complaining and wanting to help anyone who asks. Why is it embarrassing to explain this? Because that is the way I was raised I suppose. Right or wrong, it is who I am. This is Will B. saying, “never let them see you sweat.”