June 22, 2010

• Being a “Serious” Adult

  A message sent to me made me think about this idea of “adulthood”.

  I realized that back when I was about five years old I formed an opinion on the matter. And when I was ten years old I noticed that that opinion had not changed. And again when I was fifteen and when I was twenty and even now at the  ripe old age of thirty years old: still no change. 

  And I hope that when I look back when I have reached the age of forty or fifty or eighty or a hundred I’ll still find that I hold exactly the same opinion. And that opinion is this:

  If being always serious is the price that must be paid in order to be an adult then that’s one thing I never want to be.

  I enjoy being silly and random. I think it is IMPORTANT to be silly and random. Life is hardly worth living if you can’t be at times very very silly and random. People will always call such behavior childish and deride it and say that people should “grow up”. But I think that they are the ones missing out. Who decided that adults weren’t allowed to be silly? Where was it written that the only way to be responsible is to be sufficiently serious and never make a random unexpected decision?

  That’s not to say that  adulthood doesn’t bring anything to silliness. Rather I think as you grow older you get better at not just being silly but being silly with style. That’s the main benefit of age and experience. You’re silliness can be more clever. So the five year old kid being silly might walk around pretending to be a zombie, but then an adult can exercise that same basic concept of silliness and write a brilliant song like Jonathan Coulton’s Re: your brains. Same silly. More style.

  Moreover silly random stuff can be a lot more effective than boring un-silly serious stuff. Nobody is swayed by the random scholar’s dissertation on the importance of imagination and toys in growing up. But millions of people can come to understand the same concept when they watch a movie like Toy Story 3. And there is no better presentation of the risks and horrors and absurdity of nuclear war than Tom Lehrer’s We Will All Go Together When We Go:

  All the people I respect the most past and present are sometimes if not often silly and random. Whether it be Jon Stewart or Kurt Vonnegut or Mark Twain or Neil Gaiman. Some of my favorite youtubers are silly (vlogbrothers). Some of my favorite podcasts are silly (citizen radio). Even some of my favorite Xangans are often silly (happylemming, avenuetothereal, soapandshampoo). Even Einstein was said to have had a great sense of humor and a brilliant wit.

  I challenge anyone to refute this basic truism of human existence.  FACT. The most awesome people in history are silly people.

  And I may never be that awesome, but I certainly don’t ever tend to miss opportunities to be silly and random as the opportunity arises online or offline, ESPECIALLY if I’m doing it to make a point.  So if that bothers anyone… or annoys people… well too bad. I in no way intend to ever change in the slightest.

  • 5:11 pm
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