Author’s note: The photo captures the moment we mounted the goat. L-R: Burt, Terry, Max, Dave and The Finn.

I’m a big fan of Silly. Big fan. In fact we’ve taught our children about Silly, how to seek it out, how to embrace it. And that’s not easy because most parents are quick to admonish us when we’re children. Who among us hasn’t heard “Don’t be Silly!“, delivered with a derisive tone. That unmistakably judgy parental tone echoes through the decades in all of us. It’s difficult though when one is young to understand what is so wrong about being Silly but it is not difficult to understand that it is not a good thing.

But our parents were wrong. Silly is good and more than that Silly is important. It’s been with us for over a thousand years. Scholars have studied Silly, which in itself sounds Silly, and have identified the first use of the word Silly between 1100 – 1150AD. It meant ‘blissful’ and ‘happy’. I imagine that a spot of bliss or happiness would have been most welcome in that otherwise dark and chaotic world. Stay with me here, I’m still talking about the Middle Ages. I’ll get to 2024 later. Searching out the scholarship on Silly, something I never expected to do, is unexpectedly informative (talesoftimesforgotten.com)

As with most words the meaning of Silly evolved, particularly as the world embraced piety and devotion. Then Silly was used to describe virtue, bravery, righteousness and innocence. That is strange indeed but those times weren’t noted for their sense of humour. ‘Off with his head’ was not a Monty Python punchline, it was an instruction. And then Silly had it’s own Dark Ages. Shakespeare had a character in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ utter “This is the Silliest stuff I have ever heard”. Dickens had a locksmith utter “Heaven help this Silly fellow.” And nowadays Silly is associated with childish behaviour, it’s goofy, frivilous, and immature.

It’s little wonder Silly has fallen on hard times and just when we’ve never needed it more. So this is a clarion call, a call to arms. I don’t have a lot of runway left but I pledge to devote much of my remaining time in pursuit of Silly. It’s a bit of knack actually but the first step is to turn down your hearing aids so you don’t hear the judgmental echo of your parents. The next step is to get better at seeing Silly, it’s most often right in front of you.

At first you may feel Silly doing this but I promise that it will make you feel better. Searching for Silly is typically a shared experience culminating in loud guffaws (hmmm and there’s another word I should find out more about but I digress) and hearty laughter. And bonus, unlike wine or pot Silly is usually free and doesn’t leave us with a hangover or some other after effect of some measure. And here’s the thing Silly is everywhere. You don’t have to go in search of Silly you simply have to get better at seeing what is right in front of you. Become more observant. The author David Sedaris who is one of the great humourists of our time says we shouldn’t worry about finding inspiration or SillIness, we just ned to get better at seeing it

“We are human beings and human beings are hilarious.”

And Good Lord we could all do with a dose of it these days. See I told you I’d get to 2024 eventually. Without putting too dark a spin on it all we are living in perilous and uncertain times. Choose your poison, choose your side it doesn’t matter I can’t ever recall in my eight decades (well I’m 74 and I think that makes this my eighth decade) a world in which I live in more divided, more acrimonious, more disrespectful or more distrusting. It is an uncomfortable feeling I have to say the least and I know as do most of you, I can do nothing about it. Except I can rally a generation, I can lead the masses, I can go down as one of the great visionaries of all time, the one who reminded the world just how important Silly is.

Well, no I can’t. That is just plain Silly.

My wife Mac and I live in Deep Bay BC, a wonderful seaside enclave on Vancouver Island. It is where ‘Schitt’s Creek meets a Seniors Home’ and it is perhaps the Silliest place I have ever lived. It is where Silly lives, embraced at every opportunity and it is not lost on me that our cantonment is mostly seniors. At our age we know the value of Silly, we are tone deaf to our parents admonitions and we know that Silly can be as medicinal as any prescription.

As one can imagine, any newcomers to Deep Bay are enthusiastically welcomed, vetted and indoctrinated. If they show a quick laugh, a sense of humour and an appreciation of Silly we quickly anoint them with a nickname. ‘Frank’ just arrived in camp. He is an interesting man, doing something top hush-hush, engineering propulsion systems for the US government. That’s all he would tell us followed by the usual warning:

“Hey, if I tell you any more I’ll have to kill you!”

We all laughed, knowing that he was just being Silly although that laughter petered out as we each individually realized that he may well have meant it.

“Oh, don’t be Silly” he said, as he realized that we might be taking him a wee bit too seriously. And he was in, the only remaining order of business being the Anointment of the Nickname.

“I shall call you The Finn.” I announced.

“But I’m not Finnish, I’m an American” ‘Frank’ responded apparently thinking that reason was a match for Silly.

“Yes well, you have a beard and broad shoulders and you’re very tall tall. When we need to post someone at the front gate to scare off intruders we’re posting The Finn.”

He greeted all of this Silliness with a great big hearty laugh. The Finn gets Silly.

And now we’ll be taking The Finn out deep into the bay for the annual Mounting of the Goat. See how this works. Our friend Burt Kirby has been Mounting the Goat for some years now, a Caretaker of The Silly if there ever was one. Ceremonially the wooden goat is attached with rebar to a large boulder. That rock is submerged during high tides, leaving the goat in full view and looking for all the world as though it is walking on water. It couldn’t be Sillier and without fail anyone who sees the goat out in the bay smiles or laughs. That is what Silly does.

Then later this summer we will have the 12th Annual Deep Bay Duck Race. Now that’s a place where Silly Rules! A couple of years ago at the 10th Annual Deep Bay Duck Race I was standing at the starting line, knee deep in oncoming ocean water, when I turned to a woman standing beside me and offered, “Silly is so good!”.

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

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” . Turns out the scholarship of Silly thrives and learning about it as I was standing at the starting line of the 10th Annual Deep Bay Duck Race was ironically perfect.

I have taught all of my grandchildren how to suck jello off a plate at the dinner table with their hands behind their back. It is now a Christmas tradition that leaves all of us in heaps of laughter. My parents would have been horrified but as an opener to the wonderful world of Silly it was just what the doctor ordered.

The faces of the residents of Deep Bay 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.

“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 upon 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. 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 actually 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.

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

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

“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?’

“You said your dog does not 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?” It was my friend Burt.

“Let’s go.”