A smile creased my cheeks. I wrote this sentence and then looked it up to see if that was the expression I wanted. The results were clear: smile lines—how to get rid of them, with and without surgery. Pro tips for getting rid of smile lines. One question under “People also ask” was “Are smile creases attractive?” I lingered for a moment in the poignancy of imagining a person asking a search engine if something is attractive, before reading further, “Smile lines (technically called nasolabial folds) can be attractive and aren’t actually a bad thing — they can be a sign of a happy life filled with joyful moments and big grins. But that doesn’t change the fact that some folks want to be rid of them.”
Smile creases are evidence of joyfulness, but apparently they’re also so dangerous that they must be eradicated. The article was “How to Get Rid of Smile Lines, According to Skin Experts” with the dek “These treatments will eradicate laugh lines fast.”
Back to my original sentence. It was in a paragraph about two beloved elders from the Christian community where I grew up in Washington, D.C. They lived to 81 and 90, respectively. In other words, they had a lot of laugh lines.
I’ve been thinking about what it means to live well. This summer I turned 39. A few years ago I put together a 40 before 40 list, inspired by my friend and colleague Krista Dutt. The best idea I got from her was walking at least a mile in 40 Chicago neighborhoods, buying something at a local business if possible. I walked in two neighborhoods with Krista, West Humboldt Park and Austin. Having done many of these walks during the pandemic, it was poignant to witness how many businesses were closed. I’ve done 33 walks and it seems likely I can do seven more in the coming ten months.
Other items on the 40 before 40 list, I’m probably not going to complete. I can’t even blame it all on the pandemic or the other curveballs life has thrown my way in recent years. When next summer rolls around, the whole list may be a reminder of how much in life I can’t control—including my own attempts to do too much. It will be one more opportunity for a practice I’ll never check off a list, no matter how many decades I live: learning to let go.
If you’d like to see the whole list, email me. It’s too long to include here, but I’m happy to share.
Gathered and Scattered update
I’m entering the stage with my manuscript in which I’m going back through all of my research for fact-checking, editing, and expanding where needed. As I look through archival materials and my nearly 60 interviews, I am frequently struck by all the people I didn’t talk to, all those who are now among the great cloud of witnesses. In some instances, thinking about them brings back memories, laughter, and tears.
Carrol Wendelin is one example. She exhorted the Community of Christ to not only recite the Lord’s Prayer, but to pause and reflect on it. Carrol’s efforts came while I was in eighth grade. In my history class we were memorizing the opening of the Gettysburg Address. When it was my turn to stand up and recite it before the class, out of my mouth came, “Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”
Reading and listening
“Who Ate All the Pies? On Famine and Fasting” by Natalia Doran
The Orthodox have, even on parish level, maintained a tradition of fasting which involves precisely the kind of reduction in animal consumption that is needed as one of the ways of tackling both the current threat of famine and the long-term problem of world hunger. It has been said, though only as a metaphor, rather than formal research, that if the whole world fasted like the Orthodox, the problem of hunger would be solved. (Formal research can be even stricter, putting the extent by which we have to reduce eating meat at 75 percent.)
“The Reluctant Prophet of Effective Altruism.” William MacAskill’s movement set out to help the global poor. Now his followers fret about runaway A.I. Have they seen our threats clearly, or lost their way? by Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, August 15, 2022 Issue.
“The Big Truth.” University of Chicago professor Robert Pape has spent the past year and a half examining the January 6 insurrectionists—and sounding the alarm about the future of democracy. Is America listening? by Mark Caro. Chicago magazine. August issue.
Marc Anthony’s “Vivir Mi Vida” has been the latest addition to my morning playlist. I love a good horn section and the reminder to laugh and enjoy life.
I'll keep that smile line with your Gettysburg rendition... Thanks for sharing your thoughts "occasionally"...along with the diverse music which I was slow to discover ... just finished my evening with the Howard Choir--a joy indeed.
I LOVE "Four score and twenty years ago, our forefathers, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." Classic!!!