Happy Halloween?
Please forgive my interrogative punctuation. It doesn't mean that I'm unsure whether you deserve to have a happy Halloween or not, or that I question the premises of the holiday and doubt that they deserve felicitation.
This statement is framed as a question in my mind simply because I can not effing believe that it's Halloween. My disbelief is mostly due to the fact that my whole year revolves around the months of October, November and December and their attendant holidays and celebrations. Fall is, without any competition, my favourite time of year. And Halloween for me embodies all that is good about fall. My excitement for this holiday grows and develops along a similar trajectory to a child awaiting Christmas. There are certain books (anything H.P. Lovecraft comes to mind), movies, and music that I listen to specifically to put myself even more in the mindset of the season.
But even without my well codified catalogue of preparatory materials, I always know when it's getting close to Halloween. Like the needle of a compass to magnetic north, I am drawn by some universal gravitic pull to the 31st of October. Which is why I'm so surprised that it snuck up on my like it did.
I guess this just goes to show how reliant we are on environmental cues. Without the change of seasons that I've lived with for the last 26 years, I have little or no way to contextualize where I am in the turning of the year. But whether I notice it or not, time keeps moving inexorably forward.
Which seems like a really good meditation on impermanence. No matter what is happening, good or bad, it will very quickly be swept away down the river of time. Some things may last for seconds, some years. But everything eventually passes away, giving way to the next thing. Right now I'm in the library. Soon I'll be in the canteen. Right now I'm in India. This time next year, who knows where I'll be. One day is very difficult for me. The next may be better. Or worse. Like the Heraclitan river, time is always moving and circumstances are always changing from one moment to the next, and there's nothing we can do to stop it and nothing we can hang on to as permanent. And yet we all spend an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to insist on some sort of permanence. We may as well try to stand in a swift river and will the water surrounding us at one moment to stay there forever.
But I've digressed again. Have a Happy Halloween, everybody! When you gorge yourselves on candy, do it in remembrance of me!!
Please forgive my interrogative punctuation. It doesn't mean that I'm unsure whether you deserve to have a happy Halloween or not, or that I question the premises of the holiday and doubt that they deserve felicitation.
This statement is framed as a question in my mind simply because I can not effing believe that it's Halloween. My disbelief is mostly due to the fact that my whole year revolves around the months of October, November and December and their attendant holidays and celebrations. Fall is, without any competition, my favourite time of year. And Halloween for me embodies all that is good about fall. My excitement for this holiday grows and develops along a similar trajectory to a child awaiting Christmas. There are certain books (anything H.P. Lovecraft comes to mind), movies, and music that I listen to specifically to put myself even more in the mindset of the season.
But even without my well codified catalogue of preparatory materials, I always know when it's getting close to Halloween. Like the needle of a compass to magnetic north, I am drawn by some universal gravitic pull to the 31st of October. Which is why I'm so surprised that it snuck up on my like it did.
I guess this just goes to show how reliant we are on environmental cues. Without the change of seasons that I've lived with for the last 26 years, I have little or no way to contextualize where I am in the turning of the year. But whether I notice it or not, time keeps moving inexorably forward.
Which seems like a really good meditation on impermanence. No matter what is happening, good or bad, it will very quickly be swept away down the river of time. Some things may last for seconds, some years. But everything eventually passes away, giving way to the next thing. Right now I'm in the library. Soon I'll be in the canteen. Right now I'm in India. This time next year, who knows where I'll be. One day is very difficult for me. The next may be better. Or worse. Like the Heraclitan river, time is always moving and circumstances are always changing from one moment to the next, and there's nothing we can do to stop it and nothing we can hang on to as permanent. And yet we all spend an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to insist on some sort of permanence. We may as well try to stand in a swift river and will the water surrounding us at one moment to stay there forever.
But I've digressed again. Have a Happy Halloween, everybody! When you gorge yourselves on candy, do it in remembrance of me!!
posted by Andy at 8:28 AM
2 Comments:
Did you get your package?
There will be moments when you think, "Do I really have to be here [fill in the blank] more months?" But mostly, I think you will find that you will be saying, "Holy $#!%! I can't believe I've already been here [fill in the blank] months." I ate massive amounts of M&Ms all week in honor of all the people all over the world who do not have M&Ms. Happy Halloween, Andy!!!
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