Holding Onto Halloween...
Oh, Halloween. Where have you gone from me. It used to be so simple to embrace your essence on every October 31st on the dot. You were something I could hold onto for dear life forever. By forever…I really mean a very long time. You were a part of my life until the age of 31. But the adult world seems to have amputated you from my fiery soul. Your magic is only present in the privacy of my apartment when watching the Disney Halloween Treats Special!
When you become an adult so much has to leave one’s life out of necessity. For example, I could no longer write Christmas and Chanukah cards for two solid weeks because it took away from all the responsibilities of the adult world. It had to be pruned from my life and die a natural death. This is the way it sadly goes once in a while. But you were one thing I could hold onto for dear life.
There is nothing more I dislike than when schools make unfair and stupid rules to placate a very small minority of the population that has nothing better to do than complain about nonsense. I remember as a second grader I used to love playing on the snow forts from the huge piles made by the snow plows. Then one day we were told that nobody could enjoy these snow mountains unless everyone in the stupid class brought their snow equipment. There was always one person who did not bring their snow gear so all the children suffered. These days, Halloween is banned from many schools and if it does exist then it is called something really stupid like the Fall Harvest or the Fall Festival. If you believe that Halloween is for the Devils then just do not come to school that day and the problem is solved! If I were the principal then I would give all children the day off if they could not handle the meaning behind Halloween and they would not even have to do any homework.
Maybe at one time Halloween was very evil, but any genuine evil died a long time ago. Now it is something fun and beautiful. The best way to deal with the legacy of something horrible is try to turn it into something pleasant to all the senses. For example, the grounds where something terrible once happened could be turned into a garden of glorious, perennial blossoms. In college, some of the other students made my life miserable by calling me horrible names like “Sketchy Jesse.” I will be haunted forever by this abuse, but often called myself the Sketchmeister or Captain Sketchalot to make something amusing out of these memories.
If the adult world does not interfere with my fun then perhaps I will go trick or treating back home even though I am currently living in Albany. An apartment and move to a new city is not going to always stop me from seizing back those memories from those childhood days of yore and yesteryear. And if I am forced to work on Halloween then I shall accept it like an adult. After all, you are an adult first and someone with a disability second. But…there could always be next year or the year after that. One of these days…Halloween and I will come back together with a vengeance. I have been thinking of carving Jack O’Lanterns for the College Experience Program (CEP) but wonder whether it is worth it because they do not allow lit candles. I am a purist and do not believe in battery-operated Jack O’Lanterns. But things change and am alright with modifications. Small ones….
