Halloween

  • A Caution for Parents

    That something lived beneath my bedwas simply not the question."That thing is all inside your head,"was Mama's stern suggestion. But then one evening while she frownedbeside the bed and lectured,it grabbed her ankles, pulled her down,as I had long conjectured.… Continue reading

  • John 11

    It begins as a Halloween momentfit for John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Rob Zombie–Lazarus stumbling from the tomb,tripping over loose graveclothes that droop like soiled underwear. The people's averted gazes and cries of horrorturn to wide-eyed astonishmentand that goose-bumpy, gaspy feeling you… Continue reading

  • Halloween, 2011

    Zombies are hot this year;The Walking Deadis a runaway hit for AMC;major cities around the countryhold zombie crawls.  Sociologists theorizeit's an expression of our national tendancytoward mindless, insatiable consumerism.To openly acknowledge thisis to threaten the glue holding America together.After all, the answer… Continue reading

  • Halloween: Mystery

    Halloween offers appreciation for the mysterious, that which lies outside of logic and reason. This is, in fact, an important and necessary function of religion; embracing mystery and the inexplicable reflects healthy spirituality. Not everything can be–nor needs to be–sorted out, rationalized, categorized… Continue reading

  • Halloween: Facing Fears

    What scares you? Halloween invites us to identify and sit with our fears. What are yours? Here's a checklist, drawn from my life, past or present: Do you fear death? the afterlife? a big empty nothingness the other side of… Continue reading

  • Halloween: Remembering the Dead

    Most cultures around the world have festivals honoring or remembering the dead. Why is this? Is it to maintain our ties to the past, to acknowledge how we got here and to whom we owe gratitude and respect? Perhaps it's to… Continue reading