If you’re on social media, you may have noticed that “whimsy” is trending. It’s become a thing where people share videos of themselves wearing long, flowing dresses and fairy wings while shopping for groceries. Or they’ve begun sending postcards or scrapbooking. Some people are encouraging adults to build forts.
As a super serious lady, I love whimsy because it’s the counterbalance that I need. I could always use more play in my life. But what I appreciate even more than general whimsy is following my whims and noticing the delight when things work out with ease and flow. Here’s an example. I have a juicer that I literally never use, so I decided to sell it. AI helped me figure out the pricing, product description, heck, even the best time to post about it on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Has that juicer sold? No! It has not!
It’s been months at this point, and I still own that juicer. There was no “whim” involved with selling it. There was no strong impulse in me that said, “Do this.” Instead, it was more of a logical thing, a “should” thing to clear space in my cabinet, be practical, make money, etc.
Yes! Let’s splash in the ocean! Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash
I also have a hat I don’t like anymore that has been sitting around my apartment for months. I haven’t known what to do with it. Sell it? Give it away? Recycle it? On Thursday, on a whim – and I do mean a whim – I decided to post it on eBay. I could have posted it on Poshmark or another online retailer, but my gut said, “Post it to eBay!” I didn’t do any research. I didn’t ask AI for help. I copied and tweaked the description from the company store where I purchased the hat new, and then I listed it.
Based on my experience with the juicer, I expected the hat to languish on eBay for weeks, if not months. Lo and behold, the hat sold the very next day. Is it because I priced it too low? Maybe, but I did use eBay’s suggested price, and given I thought about donating the hat, even receiving a few dollars feels like a win.
I could talk about spiritual philosophy here and how and why things happen in the material world, but I’m not. What I’m more interested in sharing is the reminder that there’s a place for whims. Those small, impulsive actions, the gut-knowings, can be incredibly powerful. They don’t always lead us in the places we want to go – I sent some query letters to literary agents on a whim, and it led nowhere, for instance – but it’s important to follow those actions nonetheless. There’s something liberating about pushing aside the mind and not thinking too hard about what we’re doing. For an overthinker like me, it’s exactly the medicine I need.
I dream of a world where we recognize we can do the rational, logical things and they may still not work out. A world where we engage our childlike sense of wonder and play. A world where we don’t take everything so seriously. A world where we follow our whims and see where they lead.
Another world is not only possible, it’s probable.
I asked a friend the other day how he maintains hope and faith when the whole world seems to have gone mad, and he told me he views life as a drama – there will be happy parts and sad parts and scary parts. He doesn’t expect life to be a smooth ride where nothing happens.
He also told me a particular scene we find distasteful could be pivotal to the story – in hindsight we may find certain actions were crucial.
I like his perspective – it helps me to detach a little and not become quite so dismayed at the events in the world. I’m not saying I no longer care, nor that we should sit back and do nothing. Rather, his perspective reminds me this is reality. I want everyone to be happy all the time. I want life to proceed in a straight line improving day by day. I want rainbows and sunshine and kittens prancing through fields all day long. But that’s not what we’re living in, and that’s never what we’ve lived in. Life is a series of ups and downs, twists and turns. And furthermore, there are good people and bad people, just like in any riveting tale. There are heroes and villains, and I hate to admit it, but the villains usually prompt the heroes to leave the house. If the villains weren’t engaging in some nefarious scheme, the heroes would twiddle their thumbs and maybe knit a scarf. Personally, I’d find that kind of story dull and would ask for my money back.
So melodramatic.
Similarly, real life is the same way. There are heroes and villains, there are wise advisers and fools. We all have our parts to play, but unfortunately, no one handed us a script or fed us our lines.
My spiritual teacher says, “When human beings bring something within the scope of their intellect, and by perceiving and observing it closely, can understand the cause behind it, this is called kriidá; and when the cause is beyond the scope of their thinking it is called liilá [or play]. Whatever the Macrocosm does is beyond the periphery of the human intellect, and that is why whatever He does is His liilá.”
My interpretation of this quote is a lot of stuff happens in this world. Some of it I will understand and some of it I won’t, and maybe never will. The stuff I don’t understand is liilá or play. My point of view is instead of agonizing over why this happened or why this didn’t happen, it’s better for me to take the mindset that life is a play, life is a drama, something I get to witness unfolding.
What I also believe to be true is ultimately the arc of civilization bends toward the beneficent. Ultimately things improve for all of us. However, getting there sometimes requires clash and conflict. Sometimes things get crazy and bizarre, like any good drama, before they are sorted out. It seems to me right now our society is in the middle of an important and intense scene, one that I’d like to believe is leading us somewhere better, but it won’t make sense until later on when the story plays out.
I dream of a world where we view life as a drama. A world where we realize the ups and downs are a part of life. A world where we understand we all have our part to play and we play it with gusto. A world where we keep doing our part trusting eventually the story will resolve.
Another world is not only possible, it’s probable.
I take life very seriously (I also take myself seriously). I get caught up in the drama of what’s happening, the upheaval, the “what’s next.” I surround myself with light-hearted, playful people to remind myself life is more comedic than I make it out to be.
A while back, this great picture circulated around facebook:
You’re so right Kermit.
Yeah. We’re not going to get out alive anyway, so why take everything so seriously? It’s not going to matter in the end. Sometimes I feel like I’m getting tossed about by the ocean’s currents, flailing this way and that, but instead of thrashing about, I’d prefer to dive deep, to not be so affected by the waves.
A meditation I’ve been doing lately is a mountain meditation where I imagine myself as a mountain and then think about all the weather patterns a mountain experiences. Does a mountain disintegrate because of a thunderstorm? Because the wind is howling? No. And the weather pattern passes. It’s the same with the majority of life’s problems. They seem major! Life-changing! Dramatic! But really they’re not so serious.
A friend and I recounted a story of how several years ago we were called demons in human form. The person we relayed this story to said, “Oh really? How lovely. What kind of demon?” Instead of being outraged on our behalf, he took away the power of the insult by trivializing it because obviously my friend and I aren’t demons in human form so why not play with it?
There’s an expression I think about a lot: “If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.” So often I cry, but I’d much rather laugh. Life is so much more enjoyable that way, don’t you think?
I dream of a world where we take ourselves and our lives less seriously. A world where we play more. A world where we laugh more. A world where we are less affected by the events of the day or week. A world where we remember things are not as dramatic as they may seem.
Another world is not only possible, it’s probable.