Ryan's Feelings

Halloween is in 4 days.  I’m counting.  It’s always been my favorite holiday for one reason or another.  Surely when I was younger it was because I knew there were pillowcases of candy coming my way.  A bit later in life it became an excellent excuse to throw a fun party, themed with the undead or homicidal hippies.  Then came the phase where I tried to create the most impressive Halloween display on the street complete with fog machine and strobe light (I know, it’s a bit much).  No matter when, what was always at the heart of it was an opportunity to be creative in an uninhibited way. 

Halloween, as it exists in America today, is an excuse for people to have fun and express themselves in a non-traditional way.  It’s a day people use to put on the costume of a hero or to dress like a sexy pirate.  As winter slowly approaches, it gives people one last hurrah before the deep freeze.  It’s also one of the only days of the year where we, as a society, create something and then walk around to display work.  Very few people I know simply buy a costume from a store, rather they invent and fashion themselves something that is unique.  Four days before Halloween, people are thinking creatively, asking themselves What am I going to be.  What is the best way to carve my pumpkin this year?  How can I add to the yard display?   

I don’t mean to suggest that these are consuming questions that everybody thinks about, let’s be real, there are lots of people who don’t think about Halloween at all.  I do suggest, however, that there is something in the air around Halloween that I find inspiring.  There is something amidst the leaves changing, the cool air and the hot sun that picks me up and urges me to enjoy.  To create something beautiful.  To be silly.  To embrace spooky.  To have fun.  Four days left and I still don’t know what I am going to be.