You're a Dork

I like being a dork, there is a lot of freedom that comes with it.  You can enjoy things wholeheartedly and without any worry that you won't seem cool.  Cool is dull, cool is boring, cool is just that...cool, cold, uninvolved. We were all complete dorks once upon a time, some of us held onto that enthusiasm, but so many of us let it fall by the wayside.  I love encountering fellow dorks, I get pleasure from their (and my) complete excitement over things that may seem mundane.  Yesterday, a guy came into the store and spent some time browsing for his beer, the whole time humming the theme from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (my cousin Joy was hoping he bought Rolling Rock, I think I would have peed).  I respect this man for his abandon, I think he was fully aware he was audible to the rest of the world, he wasn't obnoxious about it, he just did his thing. 
My kids roll their eyes and try to act all cool and long suffering when I get happy about an awesome song coming on at the grocery store (the music is getting SO good there!) but in the end, they're grooving right along with me.  We hoot and holler when a deliciously horrible movie comes on and watch it with unadulterated joy.  We relish silliness, we adore goofiness and we enjoy absurdity.  It's too bad that kind of thinking gets lost so easily as we get older.
I got to spend time with my family last week, the "Other Summers" cousins are the definition of what I'm talking about.  I had forgotten, over the years, how much I loved hanging out with that side of the family.  They are loud, raucous and an absolute joy to be around.  To be able to laugh with people who get you is one of life's greatest pleasures. My family thrives on the absurd, we appreciate nothing more than a straight line, and we never let one pass.  Woe betide you if you can't find the humor in almost everything.  We have, for years, had a running family joke about nubby plywood or knotty pine coffins.  Any time we have had to shop for a funeral, someone is compelled to make a comment about knotty pine.  My family are the ones who, as a group, giggle at the wrong time.  The nuns hated us as kids in church, we usually ended up being hauled out to sit next to Sister Eunice for the rest of the school year.  While we know how to behave perfectly in public, we simply choose to put a toe over the line and see who we can drag along with us.  There's usually someone next to us willing to make the jump. 
Every nine year old is a complete dork.  The reckless abandon to enjoy absolutely everything.  Everything is cool, everything awesome and you're allowed to be a dork.  I'm not sure when it's decided we have to outgrow that and leave it behind, but to be able to hang on to some of that is a gift.

I love being a dork, I married a dork, I surround myself with dorks because they're the most fun. I even like the word.  Say it out loud "dork".  It's fun to say.  Don't be so cool...JOIN US!  Splash in puddles, lick the cake batter off the beaters, dance in the aisle of the supermarket.  Stop being so blase for a bit and be a dork.  It's going to be AWESOME!