Smiling Medusas

Well folks, let me share you this; about a week ago I read about a discovery in Amastris, Turkey that seemed to make a surprise to some archaeologists and few people because that discovery was a marble ceiling block featuring a carving of smiling Medusa.

The smile was described as gentle, childlike.

For you who don't know who Medusa is, she was a woman with living snakes in place of hair, anyone who looked at her turned to stone. Surely she wasn't a real person. She was a character in Greek mythology.

If you want to know how she looked like, there are movies where you can see how she was pictured. According to Google, the movies of Clash of the Titans and Percy Jackson have Medusa character.

So, you might ask, why this discovery of smiling Medusa caught my attention and thus, made me thought about something and as usual, my thoughts won't go away and keep hang around in the corner of my mind for I don't know how long.

Anyway, I have learned that writing them down would help silencing them down, not entirely but it does help to make their scream less loud inside my head. Fyi, I'm not a talker nor a shouter. I keep everything inside and let them torture me up to a point where I wished I had a gun so I could shot them and none of their points would matter anymore. Well, of course I can't do that because I don't own a gun and I don't want to wander around in eternal darkness as one of those pathetic lost spirit that ended up haunting a house or other spooky places.

Ok, let's go back to Medusa.

Medusa was not someone you would want to bump into. She wasn't Casper. Everybody like Casper because he was cute, innocent, soft spoken and helpful. Medusa was nasty even without a word came out from her mouth. You look at her and you are dead right on that spot.

Her eyes and those snakes hair could kill any human.

Smiling or not smiling, she was dangerous.

However, many people are deceived by smiles because they don't know that smile came from a Medusa.

Yes, this is the thought that has been lingered in my mind after I read that article about the smiling Medusa discovery in Turkey.

The smile that came from a dangerous creature. A creature that would turn you in a stone (dead) when you look to her. When she gave out a smile, which was described as gentle, childlike, would it mean her to be less dangerous or suddenly changed her into a not dangerous anymore?

I don't think so.

Let me share you few of my experiences regarding putting on smiles.

One day, I was summoned to see the bosses in my former workplace. I wasn't told what it was for and so I was surprised to hear them telling me that they heard complaints of me being unfriendly, unwelcoming and so they asked (ordered) me to be more friendly and welcoming.

This ended up with me locking myself inside my room to avoid meeting people because I didn't want to put on fake friendliness. When meeting people was unavoidable, it really felt weird and very uncomfortable for me to put an artificial smile. Dang! I hated myself for doing that, and to make it even worse, I felt bad for the people who had to receive my insincere friendliness smile and gesture.

You might say, fake smiles are good in socializing because it makes people feel comfortable and less tense and this would make them like you, accept you and if you are a salesperson, this would benefit you as it would make it easier for you to sell whatever you want to sell them.

And oh, don't forget that saying "Smile, and the world smile with you".

I guess it doesn't matter whether that is a genuine smile or a Medusa smile, right? Smile, and the whole world smiles with you.

Well, I have been deceived by smiling Medusas for to often. Not too long ago I went to a place where they smiled and very welcoming, making me felt accepted and safe. Few days later, I was informed that they didn't want me in their midst.

This sent me deep into depression, even weeks after that I'm still struggling to overcome it. I knew that I met a bunch of Medusas and their smiles deceived me. I tried to convince myself that it would be so much better and safer for me not to be in among them.

But experience like that still hurt me deeply.

It is something that I cannot do, because I am not a smiling Medusa though it might make me look like a distant, cold or quiet person. But the good news is, when you see me smile or laugh with that spark in my eyes or my face lit up, you can tell those are genuine and if you are the one who brings out that smile or laugh, be sure that my soul sensed that you are a good person with whom I can be genuine.