This is it. The big day has finally arrived and I am as giddy as a kid at Christmas. I have such high hopes for the day, I can't wait to see how it pans out. I have at least 4 costume changes planned. Ok, they aren't all costumes, some are holiday attire, but I'm still counting them as costume changes. Plus, it makes me sound a bit like a rock star.
For this final thought, it is only fitting that I talk about Halloween. It is the perfect way to end such a wonderful month. I think all months should end with a celebration. When I become grand high chancellor of everything I will decree that such a thing happen. That and I will banish November. But for now I am content to celebrate what I have. I know that for some people, Halloween is a horrible holiday. And I respect that. Just like I respect the people that loath Valentines Day. But, I am obviously not one of the Halloween haters. I do hate how the carefree aspect of the holiday has been stripped away year after year, but that is besides the point. I love Halloween for its simplicity and joy. It is a time of family and imagination. A time of wonder and magic. It is the last hurrah before the weather gets cold and the pressures of the season rush in. It is a day where you get to be a kid again or at least let your inner child out to play.
But for all that, I also see Halloween as a day of remembrance. Halloween to me is like a memorial day for family and friends. It is a time when I take stock of those I have loved and lost and those I still have. It is a time to go and pay my respects and remember the dead. Call it macabre if you want to, but that is how I have felt ever since I was a kid. Halloween is a dichotomy. It is a time to morn those lost and to celebrate in the life still to live. It is a time to be somber and a time to be joyous. Maybe that is why I like it so much. It can't be pegged as just one thing. Though the candy part doesn't hurt either.
I am sad that kids today aren't having the same trick or treating experiences that I had as a child. I grew up right on the cusp of taking your candy hauls to the police so they could scan them. There was a fear, but not like there is today. I could run around to neighbors houses with my pillowcase or pumpkin bucket and not be scared. Now more and more people stop decorating and handing out candy and go to school, church or community functions instead. Which don't get me wrong, I am ALL for those events. I love them. I participate in them. But some of the magic is lost. Getting candy out of the back of someone's car is just boring and it borders on being creepy. Maybe I am just getting all curmudgeonly in my old age, but I like things how they used to be. When people really put on a spectacle and liked having kids come over to get candy.
I have never, ever had a trick or treater and if things keep going like they are, I never will. I find this enormously depressing. I hear friends complaining about how they run out of candy and how they get tired of answering the door and I just want to lecture them and tell them to count their blessings. Each year I fill up my candy bowl and wait. I feel a bit like Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin. Each year I just KNOW that a trick or treater will show up and each year nothing. But like Linus I don't give up hope. This year will be different. I can feel it.
So revel in the day. Eat and drink copious amounts of pumpkin flavored something. Dress up with reckless abandon, hug those you love, send trick or treaters my way and above all have fun. This has been another wonderful October ride and I thank you for sharing it with me.
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