Lessons Learned from Hat Chasing

I wrote a script about dignity and chasing hats. This is the narration from it. If I can figure out how to post the whole script I may later.

It is said that there are two types of people in this world - those who are silly and those who are certainly not. By silly, of course, they mean undignified, and most undoubtedly all people who say such things would, by necessity, fall into this latter category. Keeping dignity is then, of course, considered to be the most important aspect of life. However, in truth, there really cannot be anything quite so comic as a man attempting at all costs to keep his dignity. For however hard one tries, dignity is quite a difficult thing to keep hold of. It is commonly believed that comic behavior is to be avoided. Putting oneself out is simply not done, for do to so would be quite humiliating. There could never be any pursuit so great or so rewarding as to merit such an undignified display. And yet, man is a comic creature.

Most of what he does is all the more comic for trying to appear not so. But what is dignity really, other than something that is deserving of honor or respect? Perhaps, then, dignity is not an absence of silliness at all and it is the men of dignity that understand it the least. Then again, dignity can guard us against the disappointment of misfortune by giving us the consolation that at least we never made a fool of ourselves...never put ourselves out too far. Yet maybe, just maybe, misfortune is only an adventure not properly regarded. And all it takes is the proper feeling to fully embrace and experience the adventure that is placed before us. In embracing the adventure, we realize that what we thought was dignity was the true silliness and it is only by the complete striping of dignity that one can hope to find it. Only by holding a gun to the head of propriety can you learn to laugh in appreciation of the new life that is gained. For what could be more worthy of honor or respect than completely forsaking all restraints of “proper” behavior and throwing back your head in laughter at the joy of living life fully or forgetting all the sorrows that hold you to the ground and allowing the joy of a forgotten childhood to sweep through your body. What can hold more honor than seeking what you love with such abandon that you would be willing to reach out beyond all confines of safety to grasp what you desire? To rightly consider the adventure...and never again feel it a misfortune? This then, truly is dignity, and what a silly thing it is.