Whimsy; A Catalogue of Uses
Oddly out of the ordinary is whimsy’s definition. Just the feel of the word on my lips makes me smile, a verbal form of Prozac for the spirit. Like the archetypal trickster in Jung’s psychology and the Tarot deck, whimsy tricks us into a shift of perspective. To see the ordinary a little out of kilter allows us to play with the object outside of the box of our usual view/belief about it. Whimsy stands things on their head, or tail, or puts ballet tutus on those we’re intimidated by. Harry Potter learned to handle his fear of dementors by making fun of them.
Playful spirits are a form of whimsy; making the imagination and all of the “unseen” world into a place we can venture into without so much fear. That’s not to say we can rid ourselves of nightmares but we can balance the tendency of the mind to fear the dark by seeing light within the darkness.
Most of us in the western world today have important concerns but they’re not life threatening; meaningful work, the mortgage, money for our children’s college, our daughter’s weird boyfriend, etc. We don’t live in Sub-Saharan Africa or any number of other places where whimsy would be inappropriate. We normal neurotics, as Woody Allen spoofs regularly, are candidates for lots more whimsy. Most of our fears aren’t helped along by worrying, but will benefit greatly by lightening.
On the table in the dentist’s office waiting room I visited too regularly as a child, was, “Laughter the Best Medicine.” It really did help make those fearsome visits a little more tolerable. Proof of that is that I remember the jokes, not the drill.
Whimsy is also considered childish. And what is meant by childish? Playful, imaginative, fun-loving, fearless, courageous, adventurous, curious, uninhibited . . .
If by being whimsical adults we tap into that list, I say “Go For It.”
