“Most smiles are started by another smile.” –Frank A. Clark

I smile sincerely when I face my hero.

“If you smile when you are alone, then you really mean it.” –Andy Rooney  

I give my hero an affectionate ear-to-ear.

“You cannot be lonely when you like the person you are alone with.” –Wayne Dyer 

It’s miles from the smug smirk of the jerk texting in the passing lane.

“Be yourself, but always your better self.” –Karl G. Maeser

It’s close to the gotcha! grin of the motorcycle cop.

“Beauty is power; a smile is its sword.” –John Ray

It’s cooler than the beatific beam of a saint on a stake, and warmer than a lounge-lizard’s leer.

“Love begins with an image, lust with a sensation.” –Mason Cooley

Making funny faces at my hero is child’s play.

“Youth smiles without any reason. It is one of its chiefest charms.” –Thomas Gray

There is nothing bogus about it.

“The ego is the false self – born out of fear and defensiveness.” –John O’Donohue

It puts me in touch with beauty’s truth.

“Beauty is truth’s smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror.” –Rabindranath Tagore

Alone with my hero in a universe of selfies, someone has to do it.

“The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved—loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” –Victor Hugo

So, with true humility, I deem my hero worthy of my universal frown-buster.

“You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” –Buddha

How do you measure a smile that cracks a grin in tragedy’s mask for one and all? 

“Don’t forget to love yourself.” –Søren Kierkegaard 

Well, on a scale from the Big Bang to infinity, I dare say it’s the whole nine yards.

“All nature wears one universal grin.” –Henry Fielding