So, any of you who know me well are probably aware of the fact that I'm very particular about what I celebrate and why I celebrate it! I'm not one for jumping on cultural bandwagons when it comes to holidays of any kind. I don't often get a chance to explain my thought process around this, and a lot of my friends have been asking me about it lately, so I thought I'd use my blog as a jumping off point, and start with Halloween.
I just wrote an e-mail about this so I'm going to just copy and paste it here to save myself re-writing the same thing.
Before I paste this in and just for a bit of background, I wrote this section of the email as a followup explanation to why I had requested no costumes that celebrate, endorse or exploit death and evil at our Halloween supper club...the rest is self explanatory.
So, just briefly, let me first say that I believe death is a natural part of life and not something to be afraid of. I also believe that the realization of the finite nature of our physical lives is necessary and humbling, even healthy, and that the recognition of evil and the existence of true darkness keeps us fighting and moves us out of apathy. Understanding both actually helps us value our lives more in many ways.
Now, what I don't like is the way our cultural Halloween presents death with fear mongering and evil with a mask, and seems to give the impression that "evil comes out to play" on a particular night and that it is easily recognizable. Truthfully, "evil" or whatever word you want to use for it (for you Universalists out there) is out to play already everywhere in the world, and it sure doesn't look the way people think it does on Halloween. Sure, ghosts, demons, witches, zombies and vampires look really scary and their main business is death, but that's just sensational and misleading. I don't know about you, but I've never personally had a run-in with a vampire that was unpleasant, and I haven't met any zombies in my lifetime, mean ones anyway. Maybe I just need to get out more.
I guess I have come to believe that true evil is not found in a scary mask or even in the thing it represents. No. True evil is plainly seen in the face of a starving child who no one is feeding, in the lives of people being oppressed and used with no one intervening for them, in relationships that are dying because of a lack of understanding and forgiveness, in the bruised and infected track marks of the men and women in our city living to inject themselves with chemicals and dying for the same reason...you get my point.
I want to continue to call evil what evil really is - the absence of the presence of God, the absence of love, the absence of life. So on Halloween, JUST LIKE ANY OTHER NIGHT, I think that we should CELEBRATE LIFE, celebrate each other, celebrate friendship, eat yummy food, and enjoy every good thing that we have!!! That's one of the best way to combat "evil" in my mind, just don't let it get the best of you!
That sums up my thoughts on Halloween.
Ovr'n'out......
I just wrote an e-mail about this so I'm going to just copy and paste it here to save myself re-writing the same thing.
Before I paste this in and just for a bit of background, I wrote this section of the email as a followup explanation to why I had requested no costumes that celebrate, endorse or exploit death and evil at our Halloween supper club...the rest is self explanatory.
So, just briefly, let me first say that I believe death is a natural part of life and not something to be afraid of. I also believe that the realization of the finite nature of our physical lives is necessary and humbling, even healthy, and that the recognition of evil and the existence of true darkness keeps us fighting and moves us out of apathy. Understanding both actually helps us value our lives more in many ways.
Now, what I don't like is the way our cultural Halloween presents death with fear mongering and evil with a mask, and seems to give the impression that "evil comes out to play" on a particular night and that it is easily recognizable. Truthfully, "evil" or whatever word you want to use for it (for you Universalists out there) is out to play already everywhere in the world, and it sure doesn't look the way people think it does on Halloween. Sure, ghosts, demons, witches, zombies and vampires look really scary and their main business is death, but that's just sensational and misleading. I don't know about you, but I've never personally had a run-in with a vampire that was unpleasant, and I haven't met any zombies in my lifetime, mean ones anyway. Maybe I just need to get out more.
I guess I have come to believe that true evil is not found in a scary mask or even in the thing it represents. No. True evil is plainly seen in the face of a starving child who no one is feeding, in the lives of people being oppressed and used with no one intervening for them, in relationships that are dying because of a lack of understanding and forgiveness, in the bruised and infected track marks of the men and women in our city living to inject themselves with chemicals and dying for the same reason...you get my point.
I want to continue to call evil what evil really is - the absence of the presence of God, the absence of love, the absence of life. So on Halloween, JUST LIKE ANY OTHER NIGHT, I think that we should CELEBRATE LIFE, celebrate each other, celebrate friendship, eat yummy food, and enjoy every good thing that we have!!! That's one of the best way to combat "evil" in my mind, just don't let it get the best of you!
That sums up my thoughts on Halloween.
Ovr'n'out......
