face

PotD
Mischievous Grins
November 9, 2015
charles i. letbetter - Mischievous Grins

If I’m writing something and I’m not feeling mischievous, then I know it’s not going to be great.—Elizabeth Meriwether

charles i. letbetter - Mischievous Grins

Gabriel (2015)

[one_half padding=”4px 10px 0 4px”]One of the most attractive things about faces is their ability to smile. There are as many different kinds of smiles as there are people, but the ones that get my attention the fastest are those who don’t give you those big, toothy smiles, but rather those who just give you a mischievous grin. If you look, you’ll often find a bit of a sparkle in their eye which is indicative of an active mind; one just has to be a bit concerned as to what that activity might entail.

Some faces just have a mischievous look to them. Like any other smile, that grin can stick and people who have worn one for years might as well have, “here comes trouble” painted across their forehead. Not that they are bad people in any way. I think being mischievous is probably a greater sign of intelligence than what one finds on a standardized test form because mischievous people are creative and imaginative first of all. The problem is that their imagination tends to run well outside any box, resulting in actions and behavior than can be surprising.

Mischievous people are important to society because they challenge the boundaries of what we consider normal and conventional. Tell a mischievous child that a given action is unacceptable and watch them perform that action almost immediately. Why? Because they want to see if you were correct or just trying to coerce them into observing a set of rules that, from their perspective, don’t make any sense. So, they do what we would rather they do it, their little faces grinning the entire time.[/one_half]

[one_half_last padding=”4px 4px 0 10px”]Gabriel is the youngest of my three sons. I often tell people that he was born mischievous; it is part of his identity. When he was born, the nurses whisked him away to a nearby table to clean him up and check his APGAR scores. Nana, his maternal grandmother, followed along, anxious and excited as nanas tend to be about the arrival of a new grandchild. In her excitement, Nana got a little too close. Pow! Gabriel let’s loose an impressive arc of pee and hits his Nana right in the face. The little guy was less than five minutes old and already showing his personality. Doctors say babies don’t really smile, but I’m pretty sure I saw his first grin that morning.

Mischievous grins can, at times, be difficult to catch. Mischievous people often have a very dry wit and a sense of humor that allows them to deliver sarcasm with a straight face so that one is never really quite sure whether they’re serious or not. The give-away is the quick flash of that grin, the brief sparkle in their eye that lets you know they’re just having fun keeping everyone else on edge.

Society, and parents, tend to be easily frustrated by mischievous people because they are constantly finding uncomfortable ways of showing us our shortcomings. They seem to inherently see behind our façades and then find creative, and often humiliating, ways of calling us out. Yet, whether or not we want to admit it, mischievous challenges are often correct, and that smile is their way of celebrating. Embrace them; they’re smarter than we are.[/one_half_last]

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Photography  /  PotD
That Face
November 8, 2015
charles i. letbetter - that face

Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend.—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

charles i. letbetter - that face

Amanda (2006)

[one_half padding=”4px 10px 0 4px”]That face. Let the clichès begin. There are dozens of them, well-known sayings such as the line from Groucho Marx, “I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll gladly make an exception.” Then, there are multiple versions of the inspirational instruction that keeping one’s face toward the sun keeps shadows behind them. Of course, no one ever mentions that such a habit ages one’s skin much more rapidly, requiring tremendous amounts of care to avoid melanoma, but that just doesn’t sound anywhere nearly as inspiring, does it?

I am a huge fan of the Mel Brooks musical The Producers, so when the topic of faces comes up my mind immediately races to the closest thing that production has to a love song:

That face, that face, that dangerous face
I mustn’t be unwise
Those lips, that nose, those eyes
Could lead to my demise

That face, that face, that marvelous face
I never should begin
Those cheeks, that neck, that chin
Will surely do me in

…

That face, that face, that fabulous face
It’s clear I must beware
I’m certain if I fall in love, I’m lost without a trace
But it’s worth it for that face

Faces are special if for no other reason than our face holds our public identity; it is the association by which most people know us and no relationship, business or personal, has any depth without that recognition factor. The face may be the most important thing we photograph.[/one_half]

[one_half_last padding=”4px 4px 0 10px”]Not all faces are created equal, though. The late comedian Rodney Dangerfield delighted in making fun of his own face. One of his favorites was:

I had plenty of pimples as a kid. One day I fell asleep in the library. When I woke up, a blind man was reading my face.

Similarly, comedienne Phyllis Diller had some issues with some of the pictures taken of her:

My photographs don’t do me justice – they just look like me.

and also:

Our dog died from licking our wedding picture.

Regardless of whether one considers their face attractive, however, the face remains that one body part that is inescapably you. Some people opt for surgery in an effort to “improve” their face, or at least prevent it from looking its age, but rarely is such an exercise genuinely beneficial. Not to mention the fact that I see little benefit in trying to improve anything external when the person inside is still just as rotten as ever.

So, here we go with a week of faces. Sure, it may kill my weekly hit count given the fact that, as we’ve proven before, some people only visit when there’s a naked person in the picture, but I really don’t care. Just be glad that I chose pretty faces and not my own; I’m saving those for next week.[/one_half_last]

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