afterwords:3:silly

**Silly Play

Many of us give ‘silly’ as the reason not to play. To appear silly remains a child’s prerogative, we think. Meanwhile we may remember as children trying our best not to appear foolish. And foolish and silly become hidden elements of our adult life rather than rich sources of potential play. We only allow silliness or foolishness in private moments that we rush to veil and for which we apologize. Comedians exploit this aspect of play thoroughly and we love them for it. It profoundly saddens me that we give up certain behaviors because of the ridicule that we either experience directly or indirectly. Usually the source is a ‘busy’ adult, communicating exasperation or there is another child exposed to a ‘busy adult’ who mimics the adult. Frequently we simply observe the ridicule of another and we anticipate with fear ever suffering such humiliation. As we quickly see, we also learn through our veil of fear that children play and adults work; Adults essentially become too busy to play.