Happy Halloween

No one knows that the Irish are responsible for Halloween. No one has a clue about the connection of the   Vigil of Samhain  and All Saints Day. We do know that there are tricks to be played and candy to be had on Halloween. I for one am thankful for the holiday not for the candy (although it is yummy) or the tricks (although they are fun) but for the opportunity to freely express, as an adult, the pure joy of dressing in a costume.


As an adult there are few opportunities for artistic expression allowed to us. If you act you can pretend to be anyone and it's ok but if your a typical worker bee you have no such luxury. Teachers have a bit more wiggle room. I would love to be as free as a small child and decide today I will wear all my favorite colors, today I am a super hero, today I am a princess or Today I am magical. IF I left the house dressed as a masquerade ball attendee just to go to work, someone would stop me for fear I might harm myself or others. Why is it so wrong to walk around in multi-colored wigs and a pair of tattered wings? Halloween makes it all good. 


To me, the opportunity to express some inner identities without fear of disparaging words is worth the 364 day wait between moments in time. I can feel free to be all the me I can be and I can do so as much as I want and say "It's Halloween". People smile at your creativity. People applaud your innovation. People are just people on this day. We laugh, we scare, we wonder and we relive the innocence of youth. I wish it could be Halloween at least once a month. I wish their were more opportunities for us to dress up but for now, I am appreciative of the fact that there is Halloween. 


Happy Happy Halloween to all the Children but even more to all the Inner Children of Halloween-Loving Adults!!!!!!

Digital is not a Book

Okay so I know I am writing a blog. I'm in the blogosphere which is admittedly a wonderful new form of communication, instant gratification, self satisfaction and so on. I will also concede the fact that many new voices have been more easily discovered through this medium. I am grateful it exists. I will never admit however that browsing online and downloading a title into the most convenient plastic covered screen is better than searching the aisles of the bookstore for hidden treasures. I will never admit that digital is better than a book.

As a child I spent my hard earned allowance on flashlights; tiny little plastic flashlights that I hid all over my room. Why? I needed to be able to read in the dark. Every night my mom would come in to check and make sure lights were out. She tucked me in, kissed my forehead and went down the steps to her room. I reached under my pillow, grabbed one of the several books I was reading , flicked on the flashlight and dove back into the wonderful world of the written word. Sometimes I would read until the morning light came through my window. Other times I would read until my mom somehow magically appeared by my side to take the book away and tell me to get some sleep. I however would always read. If I got tired I would curl up with the book content to know that soon I would be able to open the pages and dive right back in to a world ready and waiting for my return.

As I got older, my little brother would sneak into my room after lights out and I would read stories to him. We would both be anxious to see what would happen on the next page. We were so engrossed in the story that we never noticed our mom standing in the doorway waiting to confiscate yet another flashlight. I have a feeling she knew what was going on well before she invaded the room and let us get through the full chapter before sending my brother back to his room and reminding me I had to get up in the morning. She always had a hint of a smile when she said this.

These are treasured childhood memories which would be greatly altered if I were growing up today. The very young children still have storybooks with pictures but the older ones are now being given cold machines to keep them company. No flashlight is needed to read something that lights up. Page turning anticipation has been replaced with a scroll bar. My books kept me company. My books took me traveling across oceans to new lands and new adventures. Revisiting any tale only required the ability to take it down from a shelf. Now a days there seems to be no room for sentimentality. Instead of having a hard or soft covered tale to reread at will, you have an empty shell which you download and dispose the contents. Instead of being able to visit a shelf and browse the titles, you get the pleasure of waiting for it to finish recharging. There are no book jackets, author's pictures, signed copies or first editions in the digital realm.

Many characters on television and in movies have character traits we love and can identify with easily. One character's quirky quality that I adore would be Joey from Friends. He "never starts reading The Shining without having plenty of room in the freezer." When a book scares him or has a moment that he doesn't want to face, he puts it in the freezer. It's a silly tidbit. It's a warm and humanizing one as well. I can recall many occasions when a book has upset me and I've slammed it closed and shoved it away from me only to look at it from afar and slowly go back to it as I just needed to know what happens. I guess the equivalent reaction with a screen is just to turn it off. It just doesn't sound the same. Joey definitely couldn't put it in the freezer.

As we go forward we seem to be leaving a lot behind. The small bookshops are a thing of the past. Most of the conglomerates are gone as well. Self-publishing seems to be the wave of now and possibly tomorrow. It's not the same. I do not begrudge modern technology it's advances I mourn for the loss of simplicity and the beauty in sentimentality of the mere act of reading a book.