Sharing a Smile

Seen through a journalist's eyes, social media are extraordinary sharing channels -- people use email, Twitter and Facebook, etc., to share links to stories, photos, charts, podcasts, video clips, blog posts -- anything they find of interest.

It's one of the most natural things for humans to do (though this tendency varies somewhat by culture).

Americans in particular do like to share content with one another, especially with friends, family, colleagues.

I have often relied on friends who forward me links to articles about the media business for my BNET blog posts, for example.

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Let me share a personal story with you. Today, for the first time in a while, I was able to take a long walk. It was a cold, clear morning, and I walked a mile to a meeting and back.

On the way back I spotted a Latina woman selling cut mango from a street cart.

My 15-year-old loves mango and I knew I'd be picking him up after track practive later today, so I purchased a bag.

It cost $2.

In the exchange with this vendor, we tried English, then used Spanish to complete the transaction. She apologized for not speaking English very well (in English), and I apologized for not speaking Spanish very well (in Spanish.)

I told her that her English was beautiful and she could feel proud of speaking so well. Then she smiled at me, a most beautiful smile.

At that moment, I knew this would be a good day.

On the way home I ran into my neighbor, a songwriter, returning home with his late-morning coffee from the Atlas Cafe.

He stopped by my place for a while and we compared notes about our different writing forms. He said he wrote his best music during a stay in a remote cabin in Arizona. "It's hard for me to write with people around, I get distracted."

We then talked about the content of his songs, which tend to be simple lyrical poems about loneliness, love, loss -- all the basics of life no matter where you live or what you do.

I told him I felt ready to start writing music again, and we talked about the song I wrote last summer, "Missed Connections."

We agreed that a simple encounter could be the basis for a very good song. Then I told him about the woman and the mango cart.

I told him about her smile.

He understood.

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