An “eccedentesiast” is someone who puts on a fake smile. In Latin, “ecce” means “look at” and “dente” means “teeth.” So, literally, “Look at the teeth.” It could be read as looking at the surface, at the fake smile that hides what’s really going on underneath.
Like so many other things we talk about, this is a matter of balance. There are times when might it be perfectly appropriate to put on a smile even when it doesn’t represent what we’re really feeling, and other times when the pretense can be harmful to ourselves and to others.
This month, we wrote about times when we encourage others to “Look at the teeth,” or when others do that to us, rather than being open about what we or they are really experiencing.
One of the cultural icons of “Look at the teeth” is the opera “Pagliacci,” by Ruggero Leoncavallo. In brief, a troupe of traveling players in 19th century Italy perform skits involving a clown named Pagliacco, a pretty girl named Columbine, and a trickster named Harlequin. The actors who play Pagliacco and Columbine are a couple, but she’s planning to leave him for the actor who plays Harlequin. He finds out just before a performance, and no matter how broken he feels, he still has to put on his clown makeup and go out and make people laugh. We listened to his aria, “Vesti la giubba” (“Put on the costume”) sung by Luciano Pavarotti.
As always, we looked at some relevant quotes that people may like to use as prompts for further writing.
“We were always more or less miserable, and most of our acquaintance were in the same condition. There was a gay fiction among us that we were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a skeleton truth that we never did. To the best of my belief, our case was in the last aspect a rather common one.” — Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
“I think the most successful and accomplished people are those who can show courage and admit they can’t do it alone. It’s pointless to struggle silently behind a fake smile.” — Brittany Burgunder
“Faking a smile is so much easier than explaining why are you sad.” — Unknown
“All it takes is a beautiful fake smile to hide an injured soul … and they will never notice how broken you really are.” – Robin Williams
“I have many problems in life. But my lips don’t know that. They always smile.” – Charlie Chaplin
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