Day 143: Silliness Perfectly Captured

"Be silly, be honest, be kind" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

What an awesome quote by Mr. Emerson. Three things that definitely stand high on my list of important qualities, and I am pretty sure he got the order right. Silly should always come first, in my opinion. If a person cannot be silly then chances are that person is not my friend.

I have a fond memory of being silly that went a little off the track and became both painful and hilarious at the same time. This was when I lived in Los Angeles back in the 90's. In the 90's. That sounds funny to say. But there I was with a dear friend of mine, off on a hiking adventure in Griffith park. With our cameras in tow of course. We had many adventures in Griffith park that summer, hiking, being silly and coming up with crazy nicknames for each other, that I will not repeat here.

This one particular day we were just setting off on our hike and we thought it would be fun to take some action photos. She said, "Come over here and pretend you are climbing this wall and I'll make it look like you are scaling up the mountain." OK, cool. The photo actually did look like I was climbing the mountain, or rather scaling the mountain. Afterward I said, "Oh! Come over here and pretend you are climbing this tree." The tree went straight up and we decided it would be really cool if she ran from a distance and jumped onto the tree. I would try to catch the photo as she landed on the tree, like a monkey.

So off she went, me with my camera ready. It wasn't until she was in the air that she realized that there were some rather large, spiky thorns sticking out ALL OVER the tree. It was too late. I snapped the photo because that was the plan but as I snapped it I saw the look of utter surprise on her face. It was one of those moments that go in slow motion but you can't do anything to alter the outcome. She tried to stop herself before she landed on the tree but she still ended up scraping up both of her hands.

We cried and laughed so hard I think several drops of pee came out. The photo, in case you are wondering, came out brilliantly, though this was before the digital age and we had to wait until I finished my roll of film and had the photos developed. It is probably one of the funniest photos I have ever taken. Unfortunately I have no idea where it is right now.

Silliness perfectly captured. It is the absolute best. My husband and I have started a tradition where we finding the most hideous/bad/funny/silly photos of each other and use them to make birthday cards etc. One year I printed out probably thirty or more of these rejected photos of him and pasted them all over his birthday presents. It was a huge hit.

It's good to be able to laugh at yourself. Like the famous saying by Ella Wheeler Wilcox goes, "Laugh and the world laughs with you." I try to laugh as much as possible. When I get old I hope that I have lots of laughing lines on my face.