Sunday, January 4, 2009

daggers in men's smiles

In Macbeth, Macbeth says, " there are daggers in men's smiles." I think what Macbeth was talking about is when someone smiles and it feels like it cuts right through you, a smile with malicious intent. those smiles can be either a " I told you so" smile, a " I trusted you" smile, or just a smile that makes you feel like less of a person. Everyone has seen a smile like this, or remember smiling like this. I have experienced smiles like this many times, and it is usually the smile that makes me feel like less of a person, or just unaccomplished. A smile that says nice "try but your just not good enough."I can remember getting this smile mostly when I was younger. I always wanted to play football or volleyball with my brothers and older cousins. I would try to get into the group when they were picking teams. I would get there and my brother would say something like, " Just the older kids are playing now" or just say, "Go play somewhere else." And he would always be smiling when he said that, and in my mind the smile was saying " Your just not good enough." I can remember that smile being the worst thing in the world. And even if they did let me play, I would never get to touch the ball. Sometimes, just to try to make me feel better they would all plan on letting me get a touchdown, which didn’t actually make me happy at all. But now that I’m older and am allowed to play with the them I can see why they didn't want me to play before. It is easier to play when you don't have to worry about hurting someone smaller than me, so maybe I just misunderstood the "daggers" maybe it was actually because he cared that he wouldn't let me play. Even if that is it, that smile was still painful when I was younger.

2 comments:

  1. I wonder if we, based on such childhood experiences, try to end such pain when we have young people in our lives. Or do we continue the trend because of such experiences? Good thoughts in this entry EJ.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmmm, A) YOU HAVE BROTHERS?!! Why haven't I heard of them, B) I have to agree with Mr. Ayer. Do we want to be the "Holden Savior" or do we want to get revenge?

    ReplyDelete