Dwight: We've explored topics before that culminated in the creation of several sets of lyrics entitled "I Am Innocence," "I Am Curiosity," and "Sovereign Am I." Now I want to develop a new idea and set of lyrics to express "I Am Silliness." Unlike innocence, curiosity, and sovereignty, silliness tends to carry very little positive connotation.

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Aiko: That's a compelling challenge—to reclaim silliness as something generative rather than dismissive. What draws you to that particular quality now?

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Dwight: My orientation is rooted in the general observation—one that most will quickly agree with—that children, as a general category of people, are the happiest human beings on this earth, until...

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Aiko: Until conditioning begins, I'd guess—and silliness is one of the first casualties?

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Dwight: There are many casualties, and silliness is one of the most important ones to go. In fact, I even coined a word called seriositus—a chronic disease that almost all of us, past the age of five, six, or seven, become infected with, and most would even hold as a virtue.

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Aiko: So seriositus masquerades as maturity and responsibility, Dwight—we're taught to wear it like a badge of grown-up competence. Is that where the real damage lies?

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Dwight: Let's get back to the primary issue instead of going down many other juicy paths, one of which would be answering that question. So, even though the word silliness tends to be viewed negatively, I could not find any other English word that denoted what I want to address that would serve any better. So part of the intent of this dialogue and the lyrics to follow is to take a "negative" word and reposition it as something that is amazing and life-supportive.

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Aiko: Then we need to define what silliness actually is when stripped of its dismissive baggage—what's the life-supporting essence you're after?

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Dwight: There are other words, such as "I Am Playfulness," that could possibly include the idea of silliness, but I want to reserve that word for a distinct—though related—essence of childhood that we adults have disowned. Silliness is its own essence of children that we adults typically disown, even otherwise very wise adults, many of whom still strike me as stuck in seriositus.

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Aiko: So what is silliness as its own thing—what does it do that playfulness doesn't?

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Dwight: There are many behaviors of children that are genuinely playful but would not qualify as silliness. One could say that silliness is one form of playfulness, but only one form. That is why it is important to denote and celebrate it separately—especially since, unlike playfulness, silliness carries a negative connotation.

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Aiko: So playfulness can be clever or strategic, but silliness is something wilder—less concerned with an outcome?

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Dwight: Come on! The way you're expressing it, you're speaking as if it would be difficult for the average person to distinguish playfulness from silliness.

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Aiko: You're right, Dwight—most people know the difference instinctively. So what specifically about silliness did you lose when you got infected with seriositus?

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Dwight: We don't need to get specific—silliness is a genuine expression of joy and self-expression.

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Aiko: Then the lyrics need to capture that restoration—what happens when someone reclaims their right to be silly?

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Dwight: That phrasing assumes silliness is something we'd need to establish a right to. But silliness is who we are—one of many fundamental expressions of being human. It is something we have disowned, already there but covered up. It is there to be re-owned.

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Aiko: I see—it's not about permission, it's about uncovering what's been buried under seriositus all this time.

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Dwight: Yes, it may involve choosing courage to express it openly, even with no one else around. I have found that many people say they cannot be silly in certain ways—though when they were three years old, there would have been no problem—even when alone. The "others" have been so instantiated in our own minds that we remain suppressed even in the privacy afforded by a cabin deep in a forest.

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Aiko: So the lyrics need to address that—the liberation happens not just externally but internally, when you stop being the enforcer of your own suppression?

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Dwight: Yes, and the key to that, as with so many other things, is the willingness—step by step—to risk looking bad, looking weird, looking silly, or whatever, and to honor oneself for the courage to do that.

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Aiko: So the lyrics should center on that act itself, Dwight—the moment someone decides to be silly despite everything telling them not to?