Happy Halloween (all Hallows eve) or....

I have been a bit ill, and will blame it on a cold virus, but am in the second day of coffee withdraw, and that isn't helping. I have been driving deep into sleep (fighting my illness or just lazy).

Have been reading "Ghosts of Manhattan" by Douglas Brunt - very interesting to see foreign cultures almost made me want to find the book about the man that worked at Goldman Sachs, that left because he found a true lack of leadership and ethics. Hmm, I can wait upon the library, can't I? Sure.

Halloween suffers much of the same attack by commercialism and stupidity that Christmas does. It has some traditional purpose before Christianity, and the early missionaries seemed to label it as the last chance for evil before ALL SAINTS DAY.  There are bad things to fear going bump in the night. But my Halloween growing up was a children's holiday to dress up in costume and go around asking for candy and treats at the neighbors. Yes, there were some adult parties, but not so serious.

Along the way insane folks started trying to hurt the children, by poisons and pins and just totally bad popcorn balls. They were sure they were cool, but I did mention they were insane, criminally so. The media spread the word, and built the fears - so popcorn balls, fudge, brownies and cookies were no longer wonderful, and the big harvest of goodies and goodness from the neighbors we all knew by their names was followed by a concerned parent search of everything for whatever the boogieman had filled the bags with. Flame proof costumes, and bigger displays of sugarful candies at the stores increased the commercial success. Wiccan began to become serious new religion based on old gods and spirits. Much more to exploit. They reclaimed Halloween by saying they were first. This alarmed the Evangelical Christians, so the conflict to de-glamorize Halloween began.

Having met too many of the real monsters in the world, and having all my own personal nightmares I am sure that the original Halloween of my childhood was wonderful. I also know that the ugliest monsters that molest children and youth are often the ones we would live quietly beside, because they weren't always that way and went insane, probably incurably. Anyway, the Christians have gone to Harvest Festival, although many of us no longer near enough to a farm to harvest nor appreciate it. So, I have been elected by the security volunteers of the English Language Ministry as their captain for parking lot and bathroom patrol - looking for looters and pedophiles.... What I expect that I will see is a lot of happy children, with a mandatory Christian outreach starting program, before the games, activities and Trunk or Treat. The world keeps changing, I am always happy to stand up for good times, children and against the terrors in the minds of adults. Someone must - can't all be playing Halloween on CastleVille on Facebook - some of you have real lives.