Guest Author - Paula Petrie

When my children were small, I loved helping them choose a costume idea for Halloween. We would spend hours making the costume together, as cheaply and interestingly, as possible. This created some wonderful family moments, some great pictures for the photo album, and good stories for our conversations. Like the time one son wanted to be a mummy. We wound gauze all around his body, over a pair of dinosaur PJ‘s, that he felt he was far to old to wear. Of course, the gauze started to unwind, and we were knotting and tying between houses, till the final horror, when the entire bottom half dropped while saying, “Trick or Treat.”

My kids all went through a phase where the pre-made costumes in the retail stores would look so much more appealing. (Could never figure why) And, my children would whine that we should be more ‘normal.’ So, I spent a few years buying Halloween costume ‘deals’ after Halloween was over, or collecting costume treasures, at yard sales, to embellish our costume creations. Making us feel almost "normal.” This in fact, sprung into a year round game of dress up, from our accumulated costume ‘tickle-trunk;’ a wonderful pastime for our children.

Now my kids are pre-teen and teens. One child has an insatiable desire for outrageous (expensive or time-stealing to produce) costumes. And, the other kids have ventured off into the dark side of Halloween. As someone who detests scary movies, and doesn’t particularly like ghouls, I am not even a little bit intrigued. Add to this, as a conscientious mother, I am all too aware that my kids get more then their share of treats on a monthly basis. The idea of grocery bags full of gummies and chips stashed under beds, or squirreled away in a closet is wholly unappealing.

This year my children are asking me to stay home. They say that they will be fine with their friends, and I would be more effective home, handing out treats. But, I can see our "Trick or Treat" days are numbered. So, the cute home-maker recipes are not for me. The kids don’t want my costuming wizardry, mucking with their personas. There is always a teen smashing our pumpkin, and the devil doesn’t need any further stirring up. “How about a Halloween party,” I suggest. “OK!” they chime, “after we walk the block with friends for loot.” What does this celebration bring?? An empty pocket book, kids bouncing from sugar consumption, and at least one child having night mares from the scary movie.

Left alone at home, I can’t help feeling that if we were really trying to appease the unhappy or unruly dead, we would be better off meditating on how to right our human or universal wrongs. If our spirits heal with acceptance, what do we want the ghouls to accept? Human fraility/insanity I guess.