Faces

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My husband has more than one face, but that does not mean he's two-faced. He's not.

When he is writing, his face literally changes. He doesn't turn into George Clooney or Shrek or anything like that. He stays his handsome self, but his concentration is such that barely a muscle moves sealing his face in a single pose. 

Oh, do I wish I could concentrate like that.

Nothing I say really penetrates when he writes. If I were bitchy and if we didn't have a no pussyfooting rule, I might claim he agreed to something I wanted and wasn't sure that he would. When he would say, "I don't remember," I could say, "oh yes, you did when you were writing the article for ..."

I also can often tell his mood by his face (and a bit by his body language).

I think I read other faces fairly really well. When a neighbor whose wife was in the hospital told me he wasn't really worried, his face said me not only was he worried, he was terrified. He was never a person to show emotion, but a couple of years later he admitted how frightened he'd been.

Another husband, whose wife had an almost day-and-night-long operation, was the center of attention, looked sad. I guessed correctly that he felt left out. He didn't mind his wife being the center of attention at all, but he had lived thru his own personal hell while waiting for news during those waiting hours. I went over to him and we quietly talked about his emotions.

Some faces are easy.

• A little girl at the street dance radiated joy as she twirled to the music.
• People who smile with their mouths but that smile never reaches their eyes, tells me that the smile is fake.
• A person at a party listening and trying to care about the conversation.
• The words "I'm fine" when the tension in the cheeks says the opposite.
• A look left and down before meeting my eyes makes me doubt the truth-
• etc.

As a person who believes actions yell, where words whisper or disappear into non-reality, faces give me a tool to better communicate with the world.

Friends, who read this, please don't wear a mask next time we meet even a pretty one.