If you’ve been reading this web post regularly, you know that I am really into Halloween. At one point, I actually had more storage bins full of Halloween decorations than I did for Christmas (though I have been trying bit-by-bit to scale back on all seasonal decorations and housewares). For most of my life, as soon as September 21 announces the start of fall, I’m all in with a base layer of pumpkins and leaves into which the darker, spookier elements of Halloween can easily be integrated come October 1.

     No doubt this enthusiasm for Halloween comes from my fondest childhood memories, especially my Halloween-themed birthday parties. Since my birthday is October 9 and my parties were always held on the Saturday nearest to that date, my Mother and I would start planning the big event well in advance. That meant that the house, and everything else, had to be decorated by the party deadline. Halloween was a big deal when I was growing up. All us kids went trick-or-treating, never fearing the dark and always welcoming homemade treats such as candied apples, chocolate fudge or frosted sugar cookies. The threats of food allergies, implanted razor blades, and lurking pedophiles had thankfully not yet arrived, nor had the need for hovering parents.

     As teenagers, we went out to dances or to see horror movies or gathered to eat and talk and show off at our favorite drive-ins (not theatres, but the curb-service kind). Of course, there were always parties where we bobbed for apples or endured some version of a haunted house by sticking our hands into eyeballs (peeled grapes) or having worms (spaghetti) slithered on our arms. Most of our costumes were homemade and the more creative and crazier they were, the more we screeched and laughed. Yes, there were tricks during those teenage years, but they were as non-threatening as the childhood treats; if a boy papered trees at your house or jumped out of a bush to scare you, that only meant he had a crush on you. Everyone, even the adults, went out and about town in costume, not only to parties, but to school, to work or to shop. What an idyllic, innocent time. Seemed like Halloween lasted almost the whole month of October, which is probably why I have always continued to get an early start on the holiday.

     But not this year. I only just began sorting through the holiday bins a couple days ago to finally put up some outdoor decorations. This year I have scaled back considerably both inside and out, taking a carload of witches and goblins, ravens and owls, tablecloths, napkins and faux floral arrangements over to Goodwill in time, I hope, for someone else to enjoy them. I don’t know … maybe the birthday blahs have gotten hold of me this year, now that I’ve gotten close to that age when I should be considered “too old to run for President.” 

     Or maybe it’s just that I’ve lived long enough to recognize that scary costumes, haunted houses or superstitious sightings of ghosts and vampires cannot possibly match the real-world nightmares we are all having right now. With the help of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, I ask: How could “Eye of newt, and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog” possibly be as fatal as the poison potion of lies and deception being fed to us everyday? How could “For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble” possibly be as damming as the future implementation of a Project 2025 agenda?  How could “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble” be any worse than the seeds of deceit, division, and hatred thrown into the fiery caldron of our national conversation over the last eight long years of what has become  an interminable, and obscenely costly political campaign? How could a Frankenstein or a Dracula or a Mummy be as much of a monster as any of those living human monsters we have on our local, regional, and national stage threatening revenge and retribution on their very own people? If hell is chaos and hopelessness, then we’re there. No wonder Americans are all exhausted and depressed. No wonder I have lost my sense of fun about my favorite holiday of the year. Halloween no longer offers any innocent horrors born of the popular imagination; these days, the horrors are very real and they are here.

     Trick or treat? Truth or lie? Good or evil? Threat or promise? Us or them? Fear or freedom? Democracy or autocracy? Can you decipher the difference, and will you vote accordingly? 

     “Trick or treat!” Children aren’t the only ones who need to shout that out this Halloween.