Face it

Under you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, grumpy faces don’t always mean grumpy people, but I do wonder at times if that is true. I think this is a chicken or the egg, which came first type paradox. Do people with pleasant personalities naturally have smiley faces or is it that a naturally smiley face leads one to be pleasant. Sounds like a good research project for some university.
   Not everyone displays emotions in the same way. Some people are very expressive in their feelings. When they like something they effervesce with praise and delight in what they see. Their faces shine. There are others that may appreciate what they see, yet keep it to themselves. This can be a problem for someone involved with those people, having to determine how appreciative they really are.  There are people who naturally have facial expressions that curve up, giving the appearance of enjoyment. Others who naturally (or through force of habit) have facial expression that curve down, making smiles seem somewhat awkward. Understanding how people are reacting to you is important to a storyteller. I can have a program all designed for a particular venue and based on the reactions of the audience; I might change what I had planned on the spot. People’s faces are an important clue to what is going on in their heads.
So what is it that a face truly tells?  Is it an insight into your soul? Can you tell from someone’s face the type of person they are? Though I try not to read too much into a person’s face, I love to hypothesize what has happened to make their face the way it is. As a storyteller/writer it helps me create and develop the different kinds of characters I share in my stories.
I love to watch people. I’m doing it all the time. As much as I hate crowds, I easily lose myself in them while I observe what all the people are doing. It doesn’t make a difference if I’m just walking down the street, sitting in a packed arena or having a leisurely lunch at a restaurant, I’m always watching.
It works both ways. My wife while observing me, says that the way my face smiles, makes it difficult to determine if I’m taking anything we discuss seriously. I don’t think that I have much control over that. (My face, not whether I’m taking things seriously, despite what she may think at times). My son is at an age that anything I do that alters my facial expression is considered embarrassing, when I’m in his company.
Our face can display all sorts of images, from happy, sad, angry, worried, etc. The more I master control of it, through observation and practice the better the characters in what I tell will become. Then when looking out at my audiences I should continue to see mirrored the expressions that fit my desired outcomes. That should make us all happy.