The other day I learned about the zygomaticus major muscles. These are slender muscles that run from the corners of your mouth to your cheekbones; they're what pull our lips into that half-moon shape we recognize as a smile. And now, having learned about them, I realize they're one of the most important things in the world to me.
The zygomaticus major muscles are humanity's unsung heroes. These small muscles enabled me to smile at my baby as she wriggled in her crib like the simian larva she was. They enable my students' faces to light up like the sun when they finally understand what they set out to learn. They help me and my friends know that we enjoy each other's company. They allow me to convey my appreciation to the diligent barista who makes my drink or to the kind stranger who holds the door open for me. In other words, the zygomaticus major muscles enable me to convey joy, approval, appreciation, to build connections with others, to make the world a little more pleasant, even if only briefly.
But what really makes the zygomaticus major muscles so important to me is that they do all of this without recognition, without anyone ever giving them a second thought. Day after day, year after year, they perform their silent miracle reliably, tirelessly, and in so doing, they hold most of human society together. It's no trivial task.
We owe a lot to zygomaticus. Imagine life without them. Pretty grim, right? I'm glad I'm aware of them now. But they make me wonder, what other "smile muscles" do I take for granted? What other silent miracles are reliably and tirelessly performed, and in their routine execution, hold most of humanity together? I want to spend my life discovering them, and I want to help other people discover them, too.
So that we don't take them for granted.
YOU ARE READING
The Sh#% Your Parents Should Tell You
Non-FictionYour parents probably tell you a lot of things like study hard, get a good job, be a decent human being, take out the goddamn garbage for christ's sake. But what they won't tell you are the ugly (and slightly less ugly) truths about life that, if...
