The Battle

When another smiles at us
We tend to smile back.
Good humor is contagious
And brightens up its lack.

When instead, a frown it is
We meet upon arriving,
We return the same, as primitive mind
Fears for our surviving.

There are those times we greet a smile
With a frown forbidding
For we are hurt or just plain mad
Or didn’t like their kidding.

Our world then would be insane,
Would spiral down and down
Except for the hero in all of us
Returning smile to a frown.

Author notes

Many have not heard of the Noonday Devil. That’s the devil who drags us off to hell over seemingly inconsequential matters, like an irritating hangnail, a paper cut, a grumpy mate or a broken window. The battle between good and evil is not ultimately won by big events, wars or social movements. Ninety-nine percent of the battle is won or lost in those myriads of small human moments when we return positive to negative, patience to ignorance, kindness to meanness or, simply, smile to a frown. All, including you and I, are, at this very instant, warriors in the eternal battle. The moment-to-moment struggle in each of us, between our better selves and our worst, will literally determine the fate of the human kind.