the importance of silliness

sunrise:  4:57

Today is the last day this year that the sunrise minute repeats the day before.  Starting tomorrow we will gain a minute or two every day through 2010.  I'm looking forward to getting back on the other side of of 5am.

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One of the things I really miss about having small children around the house is the excuse to be silly.  This morning reminded me of a little rhyme that I used to recite to my kids as they grew up.  It finished with three very big handshakes that made them giggle.

'Twas a misty moisty morning,

and murky was the weather,

when I spied a small man

all dressed in leather.

He began to compliment 

and I began to grin - 

How do you do, 

and how do you do,

and how do you do again!

After a time of course, all it took was the first line to get them grinning in anticipation.  What does it mean?  What is the point?

My dad used to tell us an anecdote:

"Don't forget rule number 5" 

"What's rule number 5?"

"Don't take yourself too seriously."

"What about rules 1 through 4?" 

"There are no other rules."

It always confused me, but I think that may have been the point.  Knowing all the details and all the rules is often less important than perspective on the whole process.  It is akin, in my mind, to something my father-in-law apparently used to do with his kids when they were growing up.  If they were getting a bit high and mighty - too big for their britches, as they say - he would march them outside and make them look up at the stars, the vastness of the universe.  Now how big and important do your preoccupations seem?  Not a bad exercise for any of us.

Weighty seriousness has its place, but we have to remember that we are a tiny blip in time.  Part of making the most of our brief stay here in this earthly incarnation is frolicking a little bit.  Laugh, dance, tell a joke, make faces, pretend, perform antics.

What is the point?  To be here and now and filled with the joy of the moment, before it all passes us by.  Little children are facilitators to that state of mind, and embrace it beautifully.  Good to remember.

How do you do,

and how do you do,

and how do you do again!