New Photo Series: Thai Smiles

“If you smile at me I will understand, because that’s something everybody everywhere does in the same language” - Wooden Ships (Crosby, Kanter, Stills)

If you do much reading at all about Thailand you’re bound to run into a reference to the infamous Thai smile fairly early on, and well you should; it’s a key communication tool of the culture and something we as Westerners rarely get a handle on. I don’t pretend to understand the subtle nuances most of the time and just enjoy seeing them, myself.

I’m not quite so pig-ignorant that I can’t spot someone who’s grinning through gritted teeth when I’ve mistakenly just stepped on their foot but I choose to continue to live in my fool’s paradise regarding the other times when I’m the recipient of what I take as a warm smile that may mean “please – just go away and let me get back to my life”. I’ve undoubtedly been on the receiving end of a few of those when I’ve been out walking and taking pictures of everyday life in Thailand, but most people truly are gracious there.

Sometimes a smile is part of self-preservation of one form or another. Just as you’d smile as you wish the officer who’s just given you a ticket a nice day or thanked the nurse for the pain medication you’d had to wait an hour for, I’m quite sure not all is sweetness and sincerity in the Land of Smiles, as well. However, we often reap what we sow; the kinder we are to others the sweeter any returned kindness tends to be, I’ve found.

It’s been my experience that the more often I maintain a warm, friendly expression on my face as I bumble around there the more easily my days go, the more often sometimes challenging requests are met and the more likely it is that the next time I meet the same person that I’ll be greeted with a smile even before I smile a greeting to them. To roll out a hoary old chestnut: do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.

Today might not be altogether the most appropriate time to begin a series of happy pictures, but maybe it is. As sad and tense as the situation is in so many places there now perhaps it IS best to remember the good nature of the Thai overall – and send wishes for peace their way.