On smiling while wearing a face mask

There is one tiny silver lining in this pandemic nightmare.

It’s the smiles.

Given that much of the time – always, in fact, if we’re in an enclosed area – we’re wearing face masks in public, the only part of each other’s faces that we see is the eyes and the ears. The ears we always tend to ignore, so, basically, it’s the eyes only.

And it’s only now, in the era of the face mask, that I’ve come to realise how much the eyes do, in fact, smile. I thought it wouldn’t be possible to tell if someone is smiling given that their mouths are covered, but how wrong was I.

Even better, it’s impossible to give a fake smile while wearing a face mask. On the contrary, smiling eyes above the mask are a sure sign it’s the genuine thing, and it gives me such a warm feeling.