Treat or Trick

Halloween is coming. We have decided this year to save the expense of candy, turn off the lights and play dead so we don't have to participate in ritual extortion by little Darth Vadars and witches. I realize we risk getting the windows soaped, but kids don't do that anymore, do they? The phrase trick or treat has morphed into a magic spell that gets you candy, every time, no trick required, and nobody in this crop of goblins ever thought of soaping windows, so we're safe. 

Neighbours next door

It's not that we don't like kids. We're just tired of Halloween. What would we lose if  Halloween were cancelled: symbols of derangement, violent death and decay displayed to laugh at so we can convince ourselves we aren't afraid. 

Nearly everything we fear is on screen these days, (TV, computer, cell phone) and we have the off button to protect us, absolute power over most of the bugaboos we will ever encounter. The rest of the undead are ordinary people who learned the wrong lesson from Halloween: that a trick is more fun than a treat, that you can take a treat without permission, or that a treat received requires no 'thankyou' because we are entitled. Halloween is anything but hallowed. Who needs it?

It has another lighter side, of course. Once upon a time, a little girl showed me the other side and fixed what was broken in my jaded thinking. I dropped a candy into her basket, and with a shy smile she gave me a candy in return. I never expected that. She played a trick on me, converting the exchange from one-sided taking into mutual giving, and we became friends exchanging thanks.

Once a year in October, this memory stirs again and Halloween becomes a promise of Christmas.

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P.S.

There is a moral to the story, naturally. Giving and receiving is never simple. Giver and receiver, each has a perception of the other that is a ghost distilled from an intuition. The ghost is certainly not the real person. I have made something dark out of Halloween, and I admit that the cynic in me was wrong. Those goblins in costume are not looking for an excuse to soap our windows. They are playing a game and inviting us to play too, to pretend to be generous and patient.

So I give candy to my perception of you, and you receive candy from your perception of me. We may avoid spoiling the transaction by being somewhat less sure that the ghost is the person. I will not think you evil because your smiling face is masked. You might dismiss my grumpiness as the false face of someone old and tired who could be cheered by children pretending to be villains. There are possibilities hidden by the ghosts.

Therefore,

I give to you
and you give to me.
We play the game,
see through the disguises,

and have some fun together.

Now that I think about it,
better shop for candy.

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PPS:
It is the next morning. We shopped for candy. We now have 130 treats for goblins. Well, maybe 124. After supper we sampled the candy, just to ensure quality. [After lunch now, down to 120. Still making sure.] Anyway, we are ready to have some fun.

There is a moral to the moral of the story. We are equipped with this faculty of seeing ghosts, obscuring a reality which may be something else entirely. The ghost has implications for how we behave. It makes a difference whether we understand one another as devious and uncaring, or demanding and vengeful, or generous, nurturing and compassionate. 

It is what it is, but what we make of it determines how we treat or trick each other.

Let's have fun.

***************

PPPS.

Dorothy went to the dentist this morning and did some shopping after. She came home with 100 more treats for a total of not quite 220. Quality control continues, but we will probably have some to give away since we are buying faster than sampling. Don't tell the dentist, please. While she was out, I set up the garage with a projector and a giant screen. We are going to show spooky ambience videos while dispensing treats. Fun.