Ah, Halloween. The name is derived from the Latin word “hollow”— meaning temporary, fleeting—and “ween,” as in, “How are we gonna ween our kids off all that sugar?” So we combine “fleeting sensations” with “must eventually stop,” and what do we have?
That’s right: Life.
Life is Halloween. We dress up (if things like a tie for men and pantyhose for women aren’t costume material, I’m a teenage werewolf); we go out into the world; without meaning to beg or anything we do everything we can to maximize getting as much of what we want as we can possibly get away with; with booty in hand we rush back home again; we try to not immediately tear through everything we secured for ourselves but to instead save at least some of it for later; we fail to do that; we feel regret and even a little shame; inexplicably, we want more.
Eventually we die.
See? Add a witch here and an angry zombie there, a bunch of full moons, some occasional screaming that scares you half to death, neighbors you’re forced to interact with but would rather not know—and there you have it. Life.
Last night a little kid of maybe six years old came to our house fully decked out as a cowboy–except instead of a cowboy hat he was wearing a spaceman’s helmet.
“Wow!” I said. “Cool!”
“I know!” he said. “I’m a space cowboy!”
So. Life is good.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Bet you weren't ready for that.
I love Halloween. It's the only time of the year where you can dress up and act your age! ;D
Hey John, could you do a post on how the Christian community in the U.S. views Halloween? Thanks
That kid deserves an entire dish of candy for that costume. Sharp lad. If he keeps it up, he may indeed become a space cowboy; we'll need them.
Well. At least he wasn't dressed up as a gangster of love.
I shudder to think what the implications of THAT costume would have been.