A to Z: Silliness

Silliness should be a virtue. As adults, many of us spend way too much time being serious. There certainly are a great many reasons to be serious; bills to pay, kids to feed, work to be done. It gets to be an avalanche of duties and responsibilities. I find myself at the end of the day, teeth clenched, my shoulders hunched. So much of what we do as adults is boring, repetitive, and dull; something is needed to break up the monotony.  There is so much beauty in the world, and we miss it, our noses to the grindstone, oblivious to what is out there. One day, we tell ourselves, as life passes us by. I think that it is time to stop all that. I think we need to start taking time to be silly.

Silliness is good for our health. A good belly laugh does wonders; loosening those muscles we didn't even realize we were clenching so tight. The laughter created by silliness erupts from our core, clearing out the debris of the past in one fell swoop. The chest opens up, and we can breathe freely once more. Those frown lines disappear, and for a moment we are young again.

Silliness breaks up that monotony, that boredom, that keeps our creativity stagnant and state. Being silly frees us from the "must" in our lives that keep us working late instead of being at home with our families. One of my favorite movies is Parenthood, and one of my favorite lines is when Steve Martin angrily comments, "My whole life is ' have to'".  That character was too focused on the 'musts' in his life. He forgot to be silly. That was a wakeup call for me.

So how to be silly? I know how to be serious, but silly is hard.

Silliness doesn't involve elaborate preparation. All you need is something to laugh about. It can be a picture, or a word, or a person. Silly websites with silly cat pictures is another way to get into a silly mood. Talking to your friends can also help.

The very best experts in silliness, however, are children. Silliness and play are their jobs, and they do them well. If you truly want to learn the art of silliness, spend about fifteen minutes a day with a child. You'll have tea parties, and run around in the rain, and before you know it--Boom. Silly.

Suddenly the laughter comes bubbling to the surface, and there's no stopping it.

The Memory of a Moment

It was the summer of 1976.  We were living in Nuremburg, Germany.  Like most families who did not have a father ranked higher than a Major, we lived in an apartment building.  My family would sometimes drive to one of the other military posts for barbecues or other family friendly events.  The name of the family we visited that summer day escapes me, but back then all the kids played together whether we knew each other or not. We all knew that if we played together, the adults would begin to relax and we would have some unsupervised time. Today we were a group of ten, including my brother, and we were on a mission.  We gathered, and we eyed the prize.

This apartment building had a huge hill in the back yard.  

Covered in soft, luxurious grass that seemed to pillow our feet, the hill challenged our bravery with a sixty degree angle.  Most of us had to crawl up that hill on all fours; only the shortest of us could climb standing up.  Once we were at the top, we looked down from our precipice, our parents tiny and insignificant.  I could hear the radio blaring out the Bellamy Brothers' "Let Your Love Flow", and that song was forever paired with this hill on this day.   All of us stretched ourselves out along the summit, head to toe, in a long line.  There was some nervous giggling, but that was to be expected.  Childhood is not for the faint of heart, especially not when there are hills to conquer.

We all pulled our arms into our chests, closed our eyes.  I took a deep breath...and rolled off the summit and down the hill.  The grass felt cool at first against the skin of my legs and arms as I rolled, and I felt myself becoming more and more disoriented as dizziness overcame me.  The pleasant coolness of the grass became itchy toward the end, but that only intensified the experience.  All too soon, I was at the bottom of the hill, where gravity slowed me to a stop.  For a moment I lay on my back, looking at the slowly spinning clouds in the blue sky while I caught my breath. I sat up, and the world wavered a bit; my stomach protested, weakly. I heard laughter, and joined in.  We were all in the moment, and that moment was pure joy.

I jumped up, and we all scrambled back up the hill so we could roll down again and again, while the Bellamy Brothers sang our song.

Just let your love flow
Like a mountain stream
And let your love grow
With the smallest of dreams
And let your love show
And you know what I mean
It's the season


Mamakat's Writing Prompt:  2.) What one memory from your childhood always makes you smile, no matter what? (inspired by Not Just Another Mom Blogger).  <-----Look Ma!  I was inspirational!

The A-List: Movies That Always Make Me LOL

Last week I wrote about a movie that always makes me cry, so to balance out the Force, I decided that this week I would write about movies that make me laugh. Happy stuff! We all need a little bit of stress relief for the holidays, and what better way is there to de-stress than laughter? (Yes, I know--but this is a family show, at least for today.)

For the record, I most definitely Laugh Out Loud. I snicker. I chortle. I guffaw. I even snort on occasion. If something cracks me up, anyone in a five mile radius hears me. These are movies that always make me laugh out loud, no matter what mood I am in or how many times I've seen them. There is a small voice in my head telling me to list these movies in alphabetical order. A small voice which shall soon be drowned out with wine.

Blazing Saddles One of the most irreverent films I've ever seen, this is also one of the funniest. I can't hear "Camptown Ladies" without thinking of this movie. I secretly wait for moments when I can enter a room and say, "What in the wide, wide, world of sports is a-goin' on here?" This is by no means a 'politically correct' movie; it was made well before such nonsense. It shows racism and other things, sure, but these topics are shown in the bright light of comedy, and the result is positive. Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder seemed to have such an easy chemistry on screen that they always look like they're having a blast. In fact, the entire cast appears to be having a great time, and that is contagious.

Young Frankenstein I first saw this movie by myself in Germany when I was nine or ten. I got very few of the jokes at the time. I remember loving Marty Feldman arguing with Gene Wilder about the correct pronunciation of "Frankenstein". I watched the movie again when I was a teenager; we were one of the first families around with a Betamax. This time, I actually got all of the jokes, and fell in love with the movie. I wore that tape out. It turns out that just about every second of that movie is a joke of some kind, either a sight gag or a play on words or a word in another language(Schwanstuka, anyone?). My friends and I would take turns laughing about "Abby-someone", and reciting other lines, such as "Could be worse. Could be raining." The dart game between Dr. Frankenstein and Inspector Kemp is still one of my favorites.

Dodgeball I did not want to like this movie, but I ended up laughing so hard that I had to go get my inhaler. I actually remember playing Dodgeball in school; I was one of the kids who always had red welts on my arms and face from being pegged out. The nerdy guy who reads about obscure sports, the guy who thinks he's a pirate, the teenager who longs to be a cheerleader instead of a football player--perfect misfits Rip Torn with his "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball" routine was both insulting and hilarious at the same time. I am pretty sure that Rip Torn was actually wasted while filming that part, and that is okay. It made the point without overstating it. Ben Stiller shone as White "Nobody makes me bleed my own blood!" Goodman. ESPN should actually have a channel called The Ocho, and Cotton McKnight and Pepper Brooks need to be announcers at the Super Bowl. Plus, this movie has Chuck Norris in it. If you don't laugh, Chuck Norris will come to your house and punch you in the face.

Airplane! The key to this entire movie is that it was filmed as if it weren't a comedy, but a drama. It was supposed to be a spoof of all the airline disaster movies that were popular during that decade, but Airplane! is so much more. Peter Graves, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, and Leslie Nielsen, and the others made this movie the classic that it is, by keeping a straight face while reciting some pretty off-the-wall things, such as "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue". Even the names of the characters were part of the joke, as in Roger, Victor, and Clarence. And who hasn't sat next to someone like Ted Striker, who won't shut up for the entire plane ride? Surely you can't be serious!

Monty Python and the Holy Grail I actually have a stuffed animal of the evil bunny from this movie; you can make his mouth open to see his little teeth. The Holy Hand Grenade would hold a place of honor on the mantle, if it hadn't been blown to bits. Movies with straight-faced British actors always seem to be a little smarter because of their crazy accents, and I don't think that any American could have made Holy Grail. The tale of King Arthur is a British story, after all. We didn't have any Black Knights defending bridges. We didn't have any "Bring out your dead!" carts rolling about. And none of the Salem witches was ever accused of turning anyone into a newt. No, Holy Grail is most definitely a British film. The sight of that cow flying over the wall of the castle has me cackling ever time.


Honorable Mention: The Naked Gun, There's Something About Mary, Tropic Thunder. They all crack me up!

Have I missed any good comedies? Let me know--I'm always looking for a good laugh!

Laughter is Not Always the Best Medicine

Prompt: Write about a time when you laughed at an inappropriate time. I'm going to try something new and see how it goes...

Exactly one week after my husband asked me to marry him, he was diagnosed with cancer. It was a cancer that is highly common among young men, and it is very curable. However, my husband was heavily into denial about his diagnosis, and dragged his heals a bit. The result was that his cancer had spread into his abdomen, and we ended up at a cancer treatment facility.

Larry is terrified of needles. He told me that several times while we were dating, but it didn't really sink in. I'm scared of needles, but I usually close my eyes and grit my teeth until it's over. I thought that that was what everyone did. I held Larry's hand while they drew blood(using pediatric needles JUST for him), I had him look at me until it was over, and he seemed to do just fine. I thought that that was all there was to his phobia.

Chemo for most people involves being hooked up to an IV and pumping them full of poisons to attack the cancer cells. When it was time for Larry's second chemo treatment, he was placed in a chair that reclined in a room full of people having their chemo treatments. Some were in beds, some in chairs, some had a 'civilian' with them for moral support.

The nurse placed the needle into Larry's arm and started the IV, and then she left the room for a few minutes. I sat in front of my husband so he could see me, and I started to get my book out of my bag. Larry and I were talking about something mundane, when he happened to look down at the IV needle sticking out of his arm.

My husband looked right at me.

His eyes rolled up in his head.

Larry started to slide. Right. Out. Of. The. Chair.

I watched this happening in slow motion, and lots of things were going through my mind all at once. Could an air bubble have passed into his blood stream? Is it a heart attack? An allergic reaction? All three at the same time! What am I supposed to do? Do I remember CPR? Where the hell is the nurse--Siberia? Do they have those electric paddles here? Is this a subtle way of backing out of the wedding?

I couldn't help it.

I started giggling.

The laughter rushed up and poured of my mouth before I even knew it was coming, and once it began, I could not call it back.

It had never occurred to me that Larry had fainted. I thought something was terribly, terribly wrong.

So I giggled as I watched my future husband start his slow slide to the floor. Another chemo patient yelled for the nurse while I giggled. Many nurses came rushing into the room while I giggled. Larry is a large man, and they all seemed to be very tiny women as they: a)tried to keep him from sliding onto the floor, b)make sure he didn't pull the IV out if he did hit the floor, c)calm the other patients in the room, and d)make sure that hysterical, giggling woman in the corner doesn't need a shot to calm her down.

Nurses, by and large, are completely awesome people. As tiny as those women were, they got Larry completely back on the chair without incident. They reclined the chair, check his vitals, made sure the needle was where it was supposed to be. The lead nurse made sure that I knew that the emergency was over. I was extremely embarrassed. I kept giggling, however, until Larry woke up, and then sporadically until we left the treatment center. I don't think that Larry really knew what was going on, but he was worn out from the drugs and just went right to bed when we got home.

I'm still embarrassed about the whole thing even after all this time. I pride myself on being calm in an emergency situation, on knowing what to do in an emergency situation...and I panicked. I was completely useless when it happened. I would have been more helpful if they would have knocked me out and used my body to prevent Larry from falling out of the chair.

I know that laughing is a common fear response.

I know that it was an instinctive reaction.

I know that I couldn't help it.

I know that I am being too hard on myself.

But I still do it.