I don't much like the commercialism of Halloween. I haven't been to a Halloween party in ages, and I haven't even done candy twice since I lived here. My front porch light bit the dust, and I'm a bit afraid of some kid being eaten by a bear or falling down or something. Plus, we don't get that many kids here, and the ones we do get are driven around by parents because the road doesn't have a shoulder and maniacs drive way too fast on it.

I used to love Halloween, and it was second only to Christmas, and sometimes I felt Halloween beat even Christmas. Getting to go out in the mysterious, but friendly night and running wild was great. I used to love having the crap scared out of me too. I think when we can lighten up or poke fun of truly frightening things like death, they aren't that frightening anymore. I don't like being scared much these days. The more real fears a person has, whether they're traumatic ones or the little, everyday fears of losing a job, not being able to afford certain things, or finding out one has a medical condition, and the less one goes out and looks for scary things. Kids think of ghosts and imagine one thing. As an adult, I'm more likely to the human story leading up to ghosthood, and it really isn't a pleasantly frightening fantasy anymore. It's more sad than scary.