Let's make someone smile. It will brighten our day, too

My friend Sally must believe in the power of smiling. She's open to something nice that makes her smile. She writes poetry about what she enjoys, makes online photo collages, and she likes to start the day with a smile. Sally makes me smile.

At first thought, smiling seems to be something like laughter, or humor - but it's different. In my view, humor is more like telling a joke or a story about something funny. Laughter, when natural, is a vocal response to humor or something funny. I think smiling is an expression of inner joy or kindness, being pleased or amused, or just a result of feeling good.

Now, you've probably heard about the "healing" power of laughter. There used to be a lot of workshops on the benefits of laughter and group laughter sessions (I guess they were a form of therapy encouraging people to laugh more). I don't know whether this holds water, but I think laughter should be genuine and spontaneous, not forced or contrived.

I think a simple smile may do the trick for many of us. Not walking around grinning, but natural, the way my friend relates to smiles. She said she likes to start the day with a smile. Good idea.

Especially in the face of the new COVID variant going around, an increase in cases, and the prospect of another autumn with more restrictions and cautions because of COVID. The talk now is that we need a new type of vaccine to contain the latest new variants, but that will take time to develop.

So here we go, needing to think twice about crowds, masks and inside events. Sigh. I've already started being more cautious. I've already missed two usually happy gatherings.

I was personally looking forward to fall foliage festivals that will start soon, in early to mid September. And of course Labor Day weekend is on the horizon, when there's usually a group barbecue or other gathering for many families and communities. What to do?

I'm almost out of new ideas and concerned about a new round of skipping traditional festivities and gatherings. And as we know, this is not good for anyone, and social isolation is definitely not good for the bereaved.

So for starters, I'm pulling out my tried and true "playbook" of home activities and projects, and mustering up all my favorite distractions, and planning on more Zoom meetings, reliance on email, texting and more telephone calls.

The point is: We do know how to do this. We have done it twice before. Experts urge all to get vaccinated and boosted to help guard against serious illness. But I also think there is a new defense that could help others, and help ourselves - more smiles.

The complaining is easy but the positive outlook takes effort. This time let's exert special effort to make others smile, and be more open to seeing the nice things that come our own way, so we smile more, too.

This may sound simple, but I'm going to try it. It may help. What's to lose? Onward to the fall.

• Susan Anderson-Khleif of Sleepy Hollow has a doctorate in family sociology from Harvard, taught at Wellesley College and is a retired Motorola executive. Contact her at sakhleif@comcast.net or see her blog longtermgrief.tumblr.com. See previous columns at www.dailyherald.com/topics/Anderson-Kleif-Susan.