Infectious – yes. Miraculous also. How so? You may
ask.
It is miraculous through language. The words smile
and miracle are etymologically linked.
Both words derive from the Latin mirari meaning
“to wonder at, to marvel, to be astonished.” From this verb comes the noun, miraculum,
meaning “an object of wonder.”
Prior to the Latin, the Proto-Indo-European word smey
(or smei) can be translated as smile, or laugh. It can
also be translated as wonder.
Looking at these etymologies the connections between
the words smile and miracle can easily be seen. Other common English
words that share this etymology include; admire, mirror, mirage, and marvel.
Often the word miracle gets attached to events
associated with divine intervention. However, the word miracle simply
means an inexplicable event, an even that cannot be explained by natural or
scientific laws. However, attributing (or explaining) the event to a
supernatural, or divine, cause does not follow. That is a logical fallacy. A miracle is simply something to wonder at, to marvel at. Explanation is not required.
A more common use of the word miracle is that
of a statistically unlikely event occurring. Instances of this use are such
things as; someone surviving an air disaster, or emerging from a blazing
building hardly scathed. A statistician may describe such an occurrence as “falling
outside the third standard deviation from the mean.” In common parlance, it is
much easier to say, “a miracle.”
Miracles, and so-called miracle-workers, have been
with us for millennia. The Roman god Hercules, and the Egyptian goddess Isis,
were both believed to have been able to perform miracles. The Greek
philosopher, Pythagoras (in the 6th century BCE) is said to have
been able to accomplish miracles.
Of course, in western culture, and specifically within
Christianity, Jesus is attributed with having the ability to perform miracles.
Within other religions too, miracle-workers are proclaimed. Muhammad and
Gautama Buddha are both said to have performed miracles.
But, let us return to smiling.
Science can describe how our facial muscles work to
shape a smile upon our face. Science can also describe the neuronal messages in
the brain of someone else perceiving the smile of the other person.
But, science cannot explain a smile and it
cannot explain how it becomes infectious.
A smile is a miracle.
Smile
(Poem
by Spike Milligan - first stanza)
A
smile is infectious
You
catch it like the flu
When
someone smiled at me today
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