It’s like funny t-shirt day. (Front of shirt: “Clearance to approach.” Back of shirt: “Personal demons at bay.”)
Or, “Let’s-make-up-alternative-lyrics-to-songs-everyone-knows” day.
Or, “Let’s-mercilessly-lampoon-everything-holy” day. You know, like Monty Python. Better yet, like being IN Monty Python.
I’m talking about Daytalking. And for me it always begins with a naturally occurring sense of playfulness.
Furthermore, it’s so damn hard to find, especially these days.
So, this is my Daytalking shout-out to all you dreamy kids.
The ones who frustrated your teachers. Infuriated your parents. Baffled your friends and siblings. The fantasy-makers who quietly stared out airplane or automobile windows, looking for shapes in the clouds or surprises along the road. For me it was all the highway trips our family took in the summers, gazing out the back station wagon window at old barns with ads painted on them, wondering about abandoned shacks and lone buildings on the outskirts of small towns.
Daytalking comes from a core of hopefulness, that by saying something aloud (in this case publishing to Substack), both you and I can be heard.
For those new to my rantings, Daytalking is one aspect of a triad of personality traits that I’ve developed from childhood (Daytalking, Nightwalking, and Stargazing). It’s been the hardest aspect to define because it was frowned on (and still is) for most of my young life. It was deemed “too silly,” “ridiculous,” “fanciful,” “obnoxious,” and even “useless” by most of the people I grew up with.
The beautiful thing about getting older is finding out just how wrong most people are. That includes your parents, your siblings, your extended family, and most of your friends. Once you reach that saturation point, you bristle less at what others tell you, or take affronts and abandonment more even-handedly. You never quite doubt the fact they’re wrong, until you keep doing what you’ve always been doing, they tell you you’re wrong, and you figure out you need to give it back. Maybe times ten. When you realize that, you’ll feel much calmer.
So play on, fellow dreamers. If you’re playfully exploring possibilities beyond what most people imagine, then it’s damned likely you are going to be misunderstood. It comes with the territory. But it’s not the end of the world.
Be hopeful.
Stay playful.
Keep Daytalking.