A displaced artist from New Orleans has set up shop in one of the ground-floor storefronts in my apartment building. Last week I was walking by, and in the window I saw a sculpture that read, “S.O.S. – Stamp Out Seriousness.” What a great slogan. I wish he’d print that on T-shirts. I’d definitely buy one.
The older I get, the more I realize that seriousness is hardly ever a useful emotion. People need to approach everything they do from its opposite, playfulness, a lot more.
If you examine seriousness – if you say, “I’m serious about _____” – there’s almost always an underlying emotion of fear. I could write another 10 paragraphs giving examples of this, but you know what? I’m not going to. I’m going to leave it to you, the reader, to decide if you agree or disagree, and to come up with your own examples.