A guy who doesn't like Halloween
Well, there's one in every crowd. As you read the following, keep in mind that this guy is responsible for teaching kids.
Source: Cincinnati Enquirer opinion page, 31 October 2007.
BY RYAN SOUTHWORTH
Halloween is an enigma to me.
I can understand the excitement of dressing up and wandering the neighborhood in search of candy. And who doesn't enjoy seeing a five-year-old beaming in her princess costume or heroically twirling his superman cape. But the rest boggles my mind.
Aside from the fact that it is a holiday fundamentally (and often practically) celebrating evil, death, and terror, it seems to change our citizenry from ordinary to macabre. Our normal standards of behavior are suspended for a month of gratuitous violence and fear.
If a neighbor were to hang severed heads from his front oak tree in February or August we would be disturbed. Maybe even frightened. **Not really, because you see, they're NOT REAL** But not in October. In October it is perfectly "normal" to display rotting corpses from your porch awning or to parade through your yard the rising dead and those recently murdered by chainsaw and axe. **uh, yeah, that's because it's the HALLOWEEN HOLIDAY**
Rather than the typical revulsion we smile kindly at these "decorations" and wonder how they got the blood to look so real. **Ooooh, maybe it IS real you twerp**
Does this strike anyone else as ... well, odd? Twisted? **No** I know it's supposed to be "all in fun" (though I struggle to find the fun in gruesome death), **I'm sure that's not all you struggle with** but can we step back and think about this for a moment? **Thinks about it**......**yeah, I'm still Ok with Halloween**
It has been said that you can know a lot about a person based on what they take pleasure in, and I wonder what insight the modern Halloween season gives into our culture. Combine the scenes of massacre in our neighborhood lawns with the recent rise in gory horror/torture films and what we as a people delight in more and more looks, well, frightening.
Perhaps the greatest fear Halloween should bring is a healthy look in the mirror.
Ryan Southworth is a teacher who lives in Pleasant Ridge.
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