The anatomy of the Contented Smile: This particular species of smile means that your face is relaxed, like you are feeling carefree and your face knows all about it. All the muscles are like "lala we are happy and content right now" so there's no tension in your brow, no wrinkly forehead lines of stress or worry. The relaxchillaxness carries over to your eyes, too, so they're all loose and kinda glazed-over-y with a hint of calmness that lifts the corners of your mouth; pulls down the corners of your mouth, ever so gently so your eyes and mouth are smiling almost exactly the same amount, which is kinda hard to make happen when you're smiling anywhere in the middle of the spectrum between the Smile of a Genuine Belly Laughter caliber and like...this face >:( which are two extremes, so it's easy to match the eyes to the mouth, because you're probably truly, genuinely feeling the smiley or the frowny.
The Contented Smile in its natural habitats: Because it is so specific to each person, the particularities of the causes for this smile vary widely. Feeling good cause your stomach is full of delicious food. Knowing that you have a whole summer ahead of you during which you can do...anything you'd like, which includes 'nothing at all.' Visiting an old place where you used to belong and finding that you still belong, that you stand in front of a mini-crowd of smiling and familiar faces. Reveling in the purely "this is so college" experiences of unplannedly eating hushpuppies and milkshakes at midnight. Being immersed in conversation that reveals bits of another person that are so lovely, even when you're kind of a cynic who maybe sometimes likes people better from a distance than right up close. haha. Having finished a monumental task that seemed impossible before but was indeed possible - as these things often are - cause it's done. Walking around outside and reveling at the beauty and feeling so certainly and perfectly loved.
Merits of the Contented Smile: I think the true justification for the fact that this fulfills my category for fave facial expression lies here. The Contented Smile is elusive and unassuming and unpretentious and honest - maybe a random collection of adjectives to describe a single thing, but let me try to explain. There's something lovely in the self-sustainability and self-absorbedness of this smile. It sounds funny to attribute 'self-absorbedness' to something in a positive way, but I guess I'm trying to describe that this smile is...not looking for any attention. It's not flaunting itself to try to indicate to other smilers in your vicinity that you're in agreement, or to communicate to the frowners that they should join you in not being frowny, or to dissipate awkwardness cause no one in the group seems willing to say or do anything except feel uncomfortable, or trying too hard to make friends. It's completely anti-social in the sense that it's not looking for a n y t h i n g from anyone else, which is pretty refreshing. It's totally and honestly welling up from inside yourself, and totally and honestly just happy for happiness' sake. It's unguarded and honest and also elusive, because it's so un-social. It can be difficult to catch something that's so not trying to be caught. But maybe the elusiveness adds to the allure, just cause.
Guess who you are, you who most recently inspired these thoughts in me :)
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| tried to google image search "contented smile" but like I said, they're elusive! So this is a picture of some kittens in some tea cups. |
