What is really important? What touches us today – and will not go away tomorrow? It’s the things that have moved us since human existence: happiness, love, family, partnership, time, stress, loneliness, farewell, grief.
BILD columnist Louis Hagen*, who comes from a German-Jewish family, sought answers to the eternal questions of mankind from poets, thinkers and researchers. And found a few answers that are amazingly simple – and yet can enrich our lives.
★★★
A smiling face is always beautiful, smiling people are more attractive. Smile in the morning and say to yourself: I’m going to have a great day today.
Gelotologists (laughter researchers) have calculated that when we smile we move 17 muscles in our face. It is anchored in our genes: whoever smiles at us is our ally. Charlie Chaplin said, “Every day you don’t smile is a day wasted.”
I wanted to tell you all this, dear readers. But then I thought: your audience already knows all this. Maybe not the number of muscles, but does it really matter?
BILD columnist Louis Hagen
At the weekend then this hammer quote from the American actress Julia Roberts (55, “Pretty Woman”) in an interview with the “Welt am Sonntag”. One of the most beautiful women in the world said one of the most beautiful sentences: “Smile seems to me the answer to life.”
I find these words wonderful, very profound, a bit mysterious. Because if a smile is the answer, what is the question? I allow myself an interpretation. Life raises many questions every day. But also one thing: What is the meaning of our life? Of course, no one can definitively answer this fundamental question of mankind. But it’s worth a try – and that’s exactly what the US actress did.
Thank you, dear Julia Roberts, for this great positive thought: “Smiling seems to me the answer to life.”
How nice would it be.
* Louis Hagen (76) was a member of the BILD editor-in-chief for 13 years and is now a consultant at the communications agency WMP. His texts have also been published as a book and are available at koehler-mittel-shop.de.