I had already written this blog when my daughter ‘Niffer posted a TikTok challenge on our family chat. She asked who was up to posting a photo of our face through a toilet paper tube, to make it look like the face of the moon. Everybody jumped in.

It was Silly.

Now for context our four children are each grown up, mature, responsible and serious minded adults. And the request came fast on the heels of several days of BC wildfire coverage, news which had gained global attention. It was catastrophic news to say the least. We all have friends and family affected. That said, ‘Niffers idea came at the perfect time because sometimes Silly is the perfect ‘medicine’.

We just don’t give Silly enough credit.

Atop this post is a photo of me at Deep Bay. My friend Burt and I were mounting a goat on a rock last year. It was Silly as well. I’m a big fan of Silly. Big fan. I wasn’t always. I think I was a wee bit too serious minded when I was younger. When I was in my 20’s I had no time for Silly, it was foolish and a waste of time. After all I had things to accomplish. Even as a young child I can remember being told off by my. parents.

“Don’t be silly Tony!”

Or my friends.

“That’s silly.”

And of course that left me feeling young and immature and one thing I didn’t want to be when I was young and immature was young and immature or even worse thought of as such. So I stopped being Silly and got on with the business at hand of growing up and wrestling with all the grown up stuff that growing up presents over the decades that follow.

I actually don’t know where Silly got such a bad wrap. In the Middle Ages and Medieval times Silly was highly regarded. The Court Jester was an honoured, coveted position at court. And it’s not one supposes because they were particularly light hearted times. No those were the days of “off with his head” and plague and pestilence, none of it much good for a punch line quite frankly but they did enjoy a good bit of Silly. Somewhere between 1400AD and now Silly has become a negative thing, something ridiculous, something foolish, something to deride, something to tell our children not to be. Of course I get it. I know we all have our own version of ‘off with his head’, plague and pestilence going on but I’m telling you Silly can help. It is sometimes why we embrace Silly in the midst of our worst moments.

Of course this is where I tell you (again) that I’m seventy-three and I do so not to anoint myself with the wisdom that only comes I gather with sore knees and getting up three times at night to pee. No, it is just contextual. Turns out getting older informs everything, including my thinking about being Silly. Funny how these things come full circle.

Seventy-three year old Tony (hmmm, all of a sudden I exist in the third person, that’s weird), seventy-three year old Tony was in Deep Bay recently for the 10th Annual Deep Bay Duck Race. Now where I live in the summers is unique. The bay itself is crescent moon shaped, lined with about forty trailers and cabanas which are occupied for the most part by retirees some of whom have been coming to Deep Bay for many decades, their own families now continuing the legacy. It is where Schitt’s Creek meets a seniors home and it is wonderful. It is a place where Silly has taken up permanent residence.

The faces of the residents are creased and marked with the stories of their lives, each one unique and compelling. It seems most of their knees have been replaced, many now working on their hips and ankles. They have tried and failed, loved and lost, they have experienced the thrill of family and suffered the pain of tragedy. They have strived all their lives, achieved much and now find themselves in Deep Bay living among others who have come a familiar path. And it is for all that a place where Silly thrives, and on days such as the 10th Annual Deep Bay Duck Race it is a place where Silly Rules!

Standing there at the starting line, knee deep in oncoming ocean water, I idly turned to a woman standing beside me and offered, “Silly is so good!”. She politely nodded and replied,

“Micro glimmering. It’s called micro glimmering now.”

Of course it is. I mean why not replace a perfectly good word like silly with two words. Turns out though it is a thing. ‘Micro glimmering’, moments that bring on joy and happiness sparking ease, relaxation and a sense of peace were first described by Deb Dana a clinical therapist in her book “The Polyvagal Theory of Therapy” . It’s the scholarship of Silly and learning about it for the first time when I was standing at the starting line of the 10th Annual Deep Bay Duck Race was ironically perfect. And not just a little bit Silly.

Now make no mistake I’m devastated with the results of the race. My entry ‘Alien Abduction’ was in fifth place and closing on the eventual winner when disaster struck. ‘Alien Abduction’ became hung up on a rock weir and ended up dead last. How ignominious, how deep was my disappointment, yet another year where my best efforts where dashed by the duck of some twelve year old winner.

How Silly is all that. How much fun! It felt great, surrounded as I was by about a hundred knee replacements, twenty hip replacements and ten thousand stories about life and how hard it can be. All of us forgetting for a few minutes at least about our sadnesses, our sore knees and the natural anxieties that come with ageing. And that’s what Silly is. It is a reprieve, an escape, a reminder of a time back when Silly was everywhere, where Silly was so much fun.

“Don’t be Silly!” was wrong then and it is wrong now. It is someone else’s way of judging, of trying to impose themselves on you. Silly has no purpose, no agenda, no motive, no malice it simply exists as a portal to joy and laughter and it is healthy. It is nobody’s place to adjudicate on that. Now that I am seventy-three (uh-boy will I ever stop?!) I have turned down my hearing aid for those who find me Silly. I have no time for it and I mean that literally, as in I’m running out of time for it, if you get what I mean.

And in any event, if Silly is so bad why do we celebrate and preserve in our minds so many memories of Silly things. ‘Seinfeld‘ a show about nothing was for millions a weekly half hour appointment with Silly. To this day my friends can quote it line and verse.

“If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.”

“What’s the deal with lampshades? I mean if it’s a lamp, why do you want shade?”

Magic. Silly magic.

‘Monty Python’s Holy Grail’ fifty years on now was the height of farce and still sits on the high throne of Sillyness.

“Just a flesh wound” Monty Python exclaimed as the Black Knight slashed off his arm during a sword fight.

“We apologize again for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.” – Monty Python and the Holy Grail’s credits.

And Peter Seller’s Inspector Clouseau in ‘Pink Panther Strikes Again?’

“Does your dog bite?”

“That is not my dog.”

Silly at its best.

All of these quotes from long long ago, the sands of time passing through the hands of several generations since and yet Silly survives to amuse the next.

Silly is timeless.

Silly is fun.

Silly is healthy.

I am Silly.

“Hey Tony, want to mount a goat?” my friend Burt asked.

“That would be Silly.” I replied.

And off we went.

======================================================================

TIK TOK Challenge:

Take the cardboard toilet paper roll and put your face up to the end, then place your camera up to the other end and snap the photo. Even better, snap your dog.

It’s flat out Silly.

You’ll feel better. Promise.