The magic of being serious without being SERIOUS.
Sometimes we are confronted with a paradox. Two things should conflict but somehow don’t. Seriousness is one of those for me. I’m a naturally serious person. When I read the news, it feels serious. The kind of serious that keeps me up a night and casts a shadow of fear over the future. If we want to make things better, help people, in some small way make something better because we were here, well it seems like that is something worth being serious about.
In a terrifying world, using your voice without losing your enthusiasm is in itself a type of activism.
But here’s the paradox. The more serious we are, the more it seems to leach our energy for doing the things, making the change. We need to be serious and playfully not serious at the same time.
When I say serious what I mean is allowing things to matter. Because they do. Whatever it is for you, let it matter. Don’t be afraid to wildly care. This is the kind of seriousness that can transform our world. Show us what the world looks like through your eyes. Show us how you care. For people, causes, animals, insects, oceans, and cups of coffee.
But don’t let this seriousness infect your joy for life. Your energy. Your life force. Whatever you want to call it. Because there are two types of seriousness. One is allowing something to be important and the other is being self-important. The goal is to figure out how to be wildly serious without becoming self-important. To take life seriously without taking yourself too seriously. Because caring isn’t permission to act badly.
We need to be serious and playfully not serious at the same time.
When it comes to ourselves, I think we could all use a bit more child-like enthusiasm. To allow ourselves to just try more often than we do. To embrace challenges with curiosity and wonder. What could we pull off if we just tried? This is a pleasant alternative to typical feelings of anxiety and dread that come with breaking from social convention.
Perhaps it’s just a little perspective too. If we don’t do things that matter to us, why are we even here? To me, that’s what life is all about. But at the same time, we’re each tiny specks on a blue planet spiraling around a ball of fire. In the cosmic sense, it’s no biggie. We’ll be gone in a flash, so why not care? Like I said, it’s a paradox.
In a terrifying world, using your voice without losing your enthusiasm is in itself a type of activism. And it’s infectious, in the best way. Living this way quietly gives others permission to do the same. It’s a spark that can light a fire. It’s a ripple of good, whose ultimate effect you’ll never be able to fully see.
When it comes to ourselves, I think we could all use a bit more child-like enthusiasm. To allow ourselves to just try more often than we do.
Who is someone that lives this way? What do you admire about them? How can you imitate in your own life the traits you admire in others?
(Coincidentally, just read an article in Vanity Fair on Phoebe Waller-Bridge. And I think she might be exactly this kind of person, the kind who manages to walk the line between taking life seriously while keeping the freedom that comes from not taking yourself too seriously. Give it a read and maybe it will inspire you too.)