Blog 738 – 08.30.2017
Say Cheese

I have had for over a year now had the wonderful privilege of living and working in the land of cheese, beautiful Wisconsin. I took this picture that tantalizing says, “Say cheese” and wondered aloud what people think of when they say cheese and what makes them smile. For people born and raised in the the great state of Wisconsin cheese alone may be reason enough to smile, but though it may sound almost sacrilegious in cheese country even to suggest, many and various other things make many of us smile.

What do you think of that always makes you smile? Is it a certain face, a taste, or a place? Is it a joke you get or just can’t seem to forget? As a poet a good sounding rhyme always makes me smile or a particularly pleasing turn of phrase. Music and especially good words set to music make me smile. The new Disney incarnation of Beauty And The Beast has many lovely songs and I have listened to the soundtrack so many times that I have most if not all of it memorized. In the song “Belle” Gaston is trying to describe to Lefue what appeals to him about Belle. As he is straining to find the right term Lefue suggests, “Je ne sais quoi.” Gaston quickly replies, “I don’t know what that means.” I smile each time I hear that part at the irony of Gaston’s reply so spot on because, “I don’t know” is exactly what the French phrase means. The song writer had fun with that one and so do I.

What makes us laugh, what makes us smile says a lot about us. Remember – when you are smiling the whole world smiles with you but when you frown it feels like you are frowning alone. Say, Cheese, and show us those pearly whites.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White