Posted on 10/31/2016 5:14:26 PM PDT by golux
Good evening FRiends. Here are mine:
It is October 31 and I sit, periodically rising to open the door for people who come to my house begging for candy.
Some of the people are dressed in an interesting fashion. I still take great delight in the artistic side of the costumes, including those of my kids: papier-mache, transformed linens, custom masks, paint... It remains a leisurely, artsy tradition. I've "made it."
I feel sorry for the kids forced to wear cheap store-bought costumes: their parents are maybe too busy, work too hard, are too poor to take the time the rich parents take. The kids see it. I remember all the pageants I attended in stinking plastic Spider-Man get-ups from the five and dime. I remember mulling about feeling foolish.
Some of the adults look pleasant enough. The children, generally, look miserable: exhausted, pressed to beg again and again for sugar. The babies seem utterly terrified. Some of them seemingly imprinting on pools of blood.
There is a seething misery about this night. I feel it.
Teens will come later, expecting something – anything - unless I turn out all the lights. The teens do away with "Trick or Treat," they simply groan and shuffle. A night of beggars celebrating unholy things. A night to teach children to act out a shameless, foolish, meaningless routine.
Am I a Grinch? I love the Holidays. I adore Purim and Hanukkah, I love Easter: though I am not a Christian the bells announcing the Resurrection of your Lord fill me with joy as I happily remember praying, as a boy, with my Christian friends. Christmas? Who cannot love Christmas. Heck, I even love Kwanzaa as it’s founder’s criminality reminds us of the hilariously transparent lie of “black nationalism,” the Alex Haley hoax, etc.
But – Halloween is empty. Plastic, shameful, inhuman, and worst of all, perhaps, a little sad: a whole holiday manufactured by Chinese children, importers, maybe Hallmark...
Ah, there's the doorbell.
golux
We can always go back to how it was before trick or treating. Just don’t complain when you wake up and those rambunctious kids have taken your buggy apart and rebuilt it on your roof!
So glad it’s 1/2 mile up a dark, solid heavy-forest, unlit gravel road from our house to the paved road, and the nearest other house is over 1/4 mile from that point.
In 34 years here, never bothered with a Halloween’er.........they’d die of fright just trying to get here - on foot at least.....maybe even in a vehicle!
Why? ..... after all the No Trespassing signs is this one:
WARNING! Small Arms Fire Practice 24x7x365!
Trespass at your Own Risk!
I think maybe you’re having a bad day. I don’t celebrate Halloween but what I see are parents and kids all very much enjoying themselves and I only have very good memories of my Halloweens as a kid.
Halloween isn’t anything like it was when I was a kid. I grew up in the 50’s, and it was always one of my favorite times of the year. My mother would take the four of us kids trick or treating in the neighborhood. We never had store-bought costumes because we couldn’t afford them. My Dad used to burn a cork, then smudge our faces with it, and we’d wear some of his old clothes so we looked like hobos. We knew the best houses to go to because the people gave the same thing every year. Just about everybody had their porch lights on, and we always came home with a bagful of goodies. When my sons were little, I took them out treat or treating too. I’ve lived in this small apartment complex since 2000. The first year I was here, I had a handful of kids knock on my door. Since then, not one kid has come to our building to trick or treat. It’s pretty sad that most kids today aren’t experiencing the fun that we had every Halloween. It was a once a year treat for us, and we always looked forward to it.
So, what have you done to improve what you think sucks??
Nothing. You’re part of the problem.
George Carlin: “If you think you have a solution...you’re part of the problem.”
How true is that article.
I am assisting a family from Africa where the father is severely demon opressed. He was a Pastor in Africa who was always seeking to win God’s love rather than acknowledging that he was loved by God. He started a church plant here, which failed miserably. His oldest living daughter got preggers and moved in with the boyfriend.
Because he had been the caregiver for the two youngest and now barely says a word, merely sitting and staring off into space, the kids have started to act out. I have become an ‘uncle’ to these little ones, taking them to my church for children’s ministry on Saturdays and to church on Sundays. I am also a sounding board for these two kids.
Doctors can find no reason for the change in him. They have suggested that he be put into a care facility. I am over almost daily, reading the Bible to him. I took him to healing prayer at church and they confirmed what I thought, spiritual oppression. They recommended deliverence prayer. The one evening that he was prepared to go, his wife had to go into Emergency. As there was no way I would leave an 11 YO and a 6 YO alone in the house, we did not go. I can only charge her illness to satanical causes, to prevent his recovery. I have been unable since, to get him to agree to go to deliverence prayer.
To any who ‘poo poo’ spiritual warfare, I say you are wrong and blinded by the evil one. Hallowe’en, as it has changed from All Hallows Ev’n, is not something to celebrate.
Today, I did give candy and chips to the kids on my school bus, but I referred to the day as ‘All Hallows Eve’s, NOT Hallowe’en.
Halloween is awesome. My kids love it, adults around here love it. Don’t know what you’re talking about. To each his own I guess.
Some cuties at our door. WE are enjoying ourselves as much as the kiddos.
It’s over this evening. The porch is dark and we get the candied remains.
Sometimes I feel pretty glum about the begging,,,the rudness.
But then some child comes up with sparkles on his face and proudly says “Trick or treat!!”...You gotta love it.
We gave out the large bars this year...thanks Costco!! Those kids were like “Wow!”...and “This is the house with the big candy!”
I can’t say no to that.
Yes. As long as there is any suffering anywhere in the world, never have fun, eat candy or even smile.
them there chinamen got job skills ...
It is the focus of my life to improve what, as you say, “I think sucks.”
My thoughts here are not intended to change the world.
I am familiar with your tone: I have many acquaintances who quote George Carlin in triumphant delight, correctly and incorrectly, in and out of context.
Some of them even do it in person, away from a computer!
But the nice thing about being on the internet, other than that the anonymity of it all affords a haven for certain outwardly aggressive weaker types, is that one can actually look up a quote on the fly, in order to be sure to get it right.
For instance, even the well-known Carlin line “If you are not part of the solution, you must be part of the problem.”
In any case that is one of my favorite features of the internet.
I love Hallowe’en. I remember so many years as a kid, hoping it would be warm enough to wear my princess or witch costume without a coat on top or sweater underneath - which both sort of ruined the whole effect ;-)
We lived in a neighborhood full of older people, who loved having the kids come; and we went home with huge shopping bags full of candy.
It gave me a life-long love of the Autumn - for Autumn itself and for the knowledge that Hallowe’en leads up to the more important holidays.
A recognition of the end of the growing season and the falling of the leaves, and how this symbolically reminds us of human life, death, remembrance, and sure rebirth - are sensings that are deeply-rooted in our collective humanity, no matter what culture we hail from.
I think it’s a lot of fun, and makes for a lot of thought.
(I’m wondering if anyone has any odd stories to tell, tonight...)
-JT
All those chrome plastic skulls ,the popularity of vampire books,tbe Dead whatever TV shows and movies show a disturbing part of current culture.
Okay..........
My little brother always said ‘Trickle Treat’, before he understood the whole thing. I still tease him about it...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
