Recently I watched the film Mona Lisa Smile starring Julia Roberts and Kirsten Dunst. Its a really inspirational film set in the 50s. Overall the film was really good but there was something in particular that really struck me. In the film she says something like "look at the mona lisa's smile. Is she happy? who cares she's smiling" (this isnt the exact quote but something of the sort) This bit really struck me because I realised just how much it applies to todays society. When we look at a person, if they're smiling we automatically think they are happy when really, if you look at the bigger picture their eyes can tell you that they're hurting. One look at a person and we know their feelings, if somethings not quite right - it doesn't matter, people tend just to turn the other way and not see that inside most people,no matter how strong and self actualized they seem, is just a child screaming for help and attention. When you go on the internet, it is so easy to find these depressed suicidal teenagers, but are they really what they seem? And are those teens,that you see posting pictures of themselves having the time of their lives, really happy? Or is that instagram account just their mona lisa smile? I don't know if this blog post makes sense, I'm just sort of typing my thoughts. I guess what I'm trying to say is that some people are just tied together with a smile and hide their emotions. Im also trying to say that people don't really care about other people enough that they just take the first thing they see, be it a smile, and let that dictate the other persons mood.I think that we all do it at times- we put on a smile to hide what we are actually feeling but that only suppresses the emotion it doesn't deal with it. I guess its just human nature.
If anybody actually reads my blog(!) and feels like they're hiding away then I'd just like to say that I hope you can stop painting on your mona lisa smile and feel comfortable with yourself enough to tell people or even just come to terms with yourself.
Amani x
