Keep Your Head in the Game
Halloween is hobbling.
There was a time, before the silver edge of science cut the veil, when people believed the falling leaves and graying of the world was due to the rise of spirits from the earth. They left sweets on their doorsteps to deter phantoms from coming in and leaving with their souls. Hungry urchins dressed themselves as creatures of the night and took the food for themselves.
It’s a beautiful tradition, born out of real fear, that has grown animated and declawed. Halloween is no longer about embracing the spirit world to survive, it’s about a thousand cleavaged kittens and a thousand more Jack Sparrows trying to impress their friends, of taking home the coveted candy prize.
Skip the party, skip the bowl of peeled grapes and the dry ice steaming cauldrons, skip the fuzzy-speaker witch cackles and the plastic dismembered hands, skip desperation and crumpled orange and black candy wrappings, and allow yourself one night. One night to step out of your mind and fall into the unknown. Ask yourself, with what thing are you most afraid to dance? Then extend your hand. Horrible things will reach out, yes, but this is how courage is born. The toasted marshmallow yams will be that much sweeter once you’ve survived and November is earned.
There is something that looms behind my shoulder. A blue desert night, a yellow wallpaper of dancing figures, giggling bushes, restless giants, and an endless abyss.
It did not define who I am . . . but it sure didn’t hurt.
Happy Halloween,
-C
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