Little Sammy hurried to do his homework so he could play with his toys. Teddy was his favorite, and his car, hat, toolbox, Rubik’s cube and spinning top. When Teddy wanted to go to work, he would take the toolbox, wear the hat, sit in the car with the lid and Rubik’s cube in the toy box on a car seat, and ride until he got to where he was going. . He carefully selected the spot where he would sit all day and worked in the client’s shoes. When he was not working, he turned and turned the Rubik’s cube until all the multi-colored squares were perfectly arranged and all the squares on each face were the same color. He was often delighted to do everything right. “Wow!” He would scream with excitement. The top was also a delightful toy.
I would often film the top while spinning several times without stopping for a long time and watch the replay. He was very proud of his skill in everything he did. But Teddy faced a strange problem.
He couldn’t smile due to the fact that his face was fixed and his expression unchanging. A really strange problem for a toy, so Teddy told Sammy one day, “I’m tired of looking one way all the time. I want to express myself too. When I’m feeling happy, I want to be able to smile and show my teeth.” said.
“That’s easy,” Sammy said and picked up a pencil and scored a smile, even a grimace, but Teddy wasn’t happy. “You’ve ruined my face!” he yelled at himself as he looked at himself in the mirror.
“What do you want me to do then? Let me think. Use bits of chalk for teeth?”
“No, that’s worse. They won’t look as fancy as I want them to,” Teddy replied.
“Maybe glue on pieces of white paper for the teeth?”
“I’d like a sticker that’s ready to go. No glue, no mess. How so?” “Sure,” Sammy said and took out a shiny smiley sticker and stuck it to her face.
“Interesting! You look much happier now than before. The wrinkles are gone too. Smiling makes you look younger!” Sammy said.
“You’re right,” Teddy said, admiring her new appearance. “I look my best with my bright white teeth and the sparkle in my eyes.”
So Teddy looked cheerful at all times. When he was bored, he still seemed happy. He wanted to ask Sammy for more toys in his toy box. Rubik’s cube had worn down and the tip of it had broken off. I’ll ask her later, he thought.
At work that day, he had more clients than usual. Small children smiled at her as she passed. The squirrels also watched him work. He was surprised that a cow visited his stall for the first time. “Hello cow,” he said. “Would you like your helmets repaired?” He burped, which meant “NO!” and he left
He seemed so happy: the birds came singing and sat near him while he gave them nuts to eat. “I prefer sandwiches,” said the little ant. “Take this chocolate instead.”
Everyone seemed to like his new countenance. But Teddy found it difficult to sit in one place mending all the shoes and waiting for customers to pick them up. He soon felt tired but seemed energetic. More customers walked by smiling. He had so much work; he couldn’t kill them all and he couldn’t scold them either. Now he had a new problem.
So he went up to Sammy and said, “I love this beatific smile and it’s getting a lot of attention to me. Well, you see, life isn’t a bed of roses for me. There are times when I feel tired or sad or just overworked. But my smiling face confuses everyone. They can’t see anything but my happy face. I’m glad to take on more work! I feel exhausted from all the work I’m forced to do because people think I’m exuberant.”
“So what do you want? Do you want to change your expression? What do you think will work for you?”
“I don’t know. But this smile has to go. I feel like a sad expression would be better. Well, no one would want to burden a sad person with a lot of work,” he smiled genuinely in a long time.
“You’ll get that,” Sammy said as she bent down to remove the decal.
“Impressive,” Teddy gloated, but returned to his straight, expressionless face. “Make me look really sad, even grumpy. I want to look monstrous. Everyone should feel fear closing in on me.”
“You’ll be lonely, Teddy,” she said fondly. But Teddy wanted to look terribly sad. “Add some horns too and black red eyes full of anger and hate,” he said evoking a reckless personality.
“I’m going to stick this sticker on your face. It’s done the way you want it.” “Exactly what I had in mind!” So Sammy stuck it on and it looked perfect for the day.
“I’m not sure,” Sammy muttered under her breath, because Teddy’s new look struck terror into her heart as well.
“Let’s get the day,” said Teddy. He looked so mean that Sammy didn’t wave at him as he walked away.
When Teddy got out of his car, there was a lot of commotion. People were running in different directions, even stepping on each other. Soon the streets were empty and no one could be seen for a great distance.
“Well, this is what I call the perfect peace.” She opened her toy box: there was nothing to do. She smiled at the top whose point she had set and now turned gently.
There was no sound, as if everyone had gone on vacation. “It pleases me to be here alone, without crowing roosters, burping cows, or grinning ants.” So she sat quietly watching the wind blow a few leaves here and there from time to time. No job to do was hard too. How long could one remain inactive? “I’m bored, and there’s no one to talk to,” she complained to herself.
I couldn’t wait to go home. She knew the sticker was out of place. She had gone too far. A world without friends is worse than one where there is a lot of work but also a lot of love.
Sammy was delighted to get rid of the sticker. He tore it in half to make sure Teddy couldn’t use it again. “What if he changes his mind? I don’t know what happened to him? How could anyone choose to be evil? That’s completely flawed,” he was glad to have an example.
Teddy was happy that he looked normal again. “I’ve tried being happy and terribly sad. But it seems they both failed in their own way,” Teddy said sadly. “I can’t think of what I want to look like right now… Sammy, can you help me?”
“When I’m feeling happy, I smile because it’s a reflection of how I feel in my heart. I usually don’t smile when I’m feeling sad. So, all my feelings start in my heart and spread to all other parts of my body. , but I can feel it anyway.
It’s the same in your case too, the only difference is that you can’t show it to anyone else. But you can still say what you feel. You can let others know how you feel with your words. You can make them smile or cry with your words. It’s just that you have to talk more so that others know it with your words instead of your outward expressions,” Sammy beamed.
He continued: “And sometimes it’s better not to show how you feel. It might be better to think about how you feel, since feelings change over time and you may not feel as angry when you calm down.”
Teddy nodded. “I think you’re right. It’s not how you look but what you think that matters. If you have happy thoughts, you will be happy, and you can also become sad by having sad thoughts.”
Teddy continued: “I think I’m happy to stay as I am and just work on my inner life, the place where I observe and learn about life. I think it’s interesting to live inside myself!” He laughed so hard that all the toys turned to look. “Tell us what makes you so happy?” they came asking.
“Nothing. It’s just life,” and he smiled to himself.
Takeaway: When faced with a problem, look inside your heart. Usually, you will find the solution there, right inside your heart.