The Value of Silliness. :P

Hello, my friends.  I have just a short entry for you today, and the words are not my own.  My friend, Emily Schmidt of northeast Oklahoma, posted these words on her Facebook page on January 30, and graciously agreed to let me share them with you here.

“Thinking a lot lately about the importance of silliness.  Never before in my life have I recognized how important it is more than right now. 

"I've been asked before when I'm going to quit; quit acting like Scout Finch, quit making faces, quit dancing in my underwear, quit getting dirty, quit being the class clown and just grow up.  How ignorant.  Growing up is not the inverse of acting silly, or having a childlike wonder at the world.  If more people held on to that as they "grew up" the world would be better place.  It's a reverence for mortality, for the fragility of life... and at the same time an irreverence.  It's a boldness in the face of death, in spite of it.

"Life is full of sad terrible stuff.  It's full of death and sin and ugly horrible things.  If you can laugh in the face of this, not only is that brave, but it makes it beautiful.  Why not rejoice when there is time to rejoice?  Laugh whenever you get a chance.  Filch some joy where you can get it.  Sometimes being goofy is the only way to get through all of the ugly stuff.  Laugh so hard you shoot rootbeer float out your nose, dance instead of walk... anywhere, make up your own words, make a fort in the sheets, be yourself.  Please, be silly.”

If Emily wasn’t so darn awesome, I’d be insanely jealous of how brilliantly she expressed herself.  As it is, she is awesome, and all I can say is “You go, girl!”  Despite Emily’s youth, and my age, I learn from her on a regular basis.