strange subway occurrences

Tonight on my way home from work, the car I was going to get in was empty except for one women with a lot of garbage all around her and two people getting out of the car holding their noses and shaking their heads and telling me don't go in that one. So, naturally I sat next to her. Just kidding, haha, I went to the next one and sat in a cleaner smelling car. Remember in an earlier post I wrote about prejudices. Here is an example of when having a prejudice is a good thing, sort of. By listening to my instincts and my prejudices, and by observing what was going on around me, I probably saved myself from a very uncomfortable if not hazardous situation for the next 45 minutes. On the other hand, this poor woman, who may or may not have been mentally or emotionally ill, probably felt bad because everyone was fleeing from her car. Maybe she liked the peace and quiet but who knows. Who really knows how the homeless feel? How do we even know for a fact that she was homeless? All the signs pointed that way; very bad body odor, lots of garbage laying around, but what if our prejudices are not always right? She may have a home, her shower could be broken and she could have been collecting garbage in the subway to help make it cleaner. Probably not, but possible nonetheless.
Which brings me to the next occurrence on my ride home. The gentleman sitting across from me would not stop smiling. It wasn't an evil smile, a smirk, or a come hither smile. It was a joyful, innocent smile. When I first saw this I thought that maybe he just thought of something funny in his mind. Then the next time I looked up form my Ipod, he was still smiling away and my inclination was to think he had some sort of personality disorder or mental challenge. Why is it that we are soooo jaded to think that anyone who is smiling must be mentally or emotionally disabled? Is it a New Yorker mindset that I am already feeling, or it is a human race type of thing where we are all programed to be pessimists? Although, in my defense, he was still smiling when I got off the train. Either he just got lucky for the first time, or my prejudice was correct.
xoxo