A long line of frowners

They say it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile, I don’t believe that for one second. Whoever made that up is a total idiot and has never been around the Chesney family for any length of time.

I come from a long line of frowners. We are not an unhappy people (well most of the time anyways) but we just tend to have a natural frown on our face. If I just sit and stare without any type of expression, I appear as if I’m angry or disgusted about something. My dad and my late grandfather Chesney are the same way. Oh, we can smile at any given opportunity, and we all actually have really nice smiles. I’ve made a self-conscious effort to try not to appear to be mad, and it works for a while but sooner or later my face is going to go back into the frowning mode.

While all of this may seem trivial to you, just take a moment to think about it. Have you ever had someone come up to you and ask what is wrong, or what has happened, when you are perfectly fine? That happens to me all of the time. I will reply, “nothing, why?” They always come back with, “from the look on your face it just looks like something is wrong.” So then I have to try and defend myself or make excuses as to why I appear to look upset, and then I really do get upset. It’s just one vicious cycle. Oh there are times when it comes in handy, such as when I don’t want to be disturbed or talked to, like at a party or something. I can just sit there with the “Chesney frown” on and folks will go out of their way to avoid me. I can overhear them asking, “what in the world is wrong with Byron?” I am secretly laughing inside.

My frowning features are not near as bad as my dad’s are though. He has run off more of my sister’s potential suitors they can count. Pam once had a boyfriend that came over and after meeting dad, he decided he would just not come back in the house anymore. He felt more comfortable sitting out in the driveway in the safety of his own car. Dad can sit and stare into space for hours with a solemn look on his face and a long vertical crease in the center of his forehead. I personally believe he is like me; he sits around with his mind in deep thought about things, being oblivious to the world around him. Meanwhile folks are tiptoeing around with puzzled and fearful looks asking, “What’s wrong with James?” My late papaw, Lorn Chesney, was even worse. So far my son hasn't exhibited any signs of the frown, so hopefully it is getting better down through the generations.

In my many years of Church ministry, I have come to realize that there are several people that are cursed with the Chesney frown, and they aren’t all my people! At church I put forth an extra amount of effort to look and be pleasant. I will smile and laugh and joke until my jaws ache. But, I’ll be standing behind the pulpit leading the congregation in songs of praise, with a big smile on my face, and I’ll look across the audience and it appears that everyone has been stricken with mad cow disease. It’s almost scary sometimes. I realize that people aren’t really angry and that they just appear that way, but gosh, it sure would make my job easier if they would at least try to look happy. I get to where I can’t look at people and will just stare into my church hymnal and sing.

Not sure why I wrote all of that, just had it on my mind and thought I would write about it.