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Sergio Moreno

Sergio Moreno is a hospital chaplain in Kansas City, Missouri. He is a member of the Rime Buddhist Center, where he serves as a meditation instructor and leads the Basics of Buddhism class. His interests include interfaith collaboration, religious literacy, and clinical pastoral education. He is married, has two daughters, two dogs and loves music, coffee, and backyard birding.

SMILE, YOU’VE FOUND PRECIOUS HUMAN LIFE

Studies find that people in more diverse countries, countries with great numbers of immigrants, rely on smiling to build trust and to build cooperation. A simple reason for this is the fact that we don’t all speak the same language. But there is a different, and I think, more meaningful reason for smiling in countries with more immigrants, and that is that smiling is a way to bond socially. A smile is a rather universally understood thing. Surely we can recognize a fake smile, a genuine smile, a wicked smile, a forced or sarcastic smile. But we know a smile when we see it.