Author: Anthony

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Why Halloween is the Best Holiday

(I am posting this before Sunday in the spirit of the Halloween weekend)

Out of all the holidays, Halloween has got to be the most friendly one. The one that most embodies the spirit of love and community. Don’t believe me? Please hear me out.

First, let me say that this post is largely a response to a recent article I read about an elementary school that changed their yearly Halloween celebration/parade into a “Black and Orange Spirit Parade”, justifying it by saying that a Halloween Parade is not “inclusive” of all the students. The article was on CBS News. Massachusetts school drops Halloween for “black and orange” spirit day.

I find this upsetting, because Halloween happens to be the most inclusive holiday there is. It is not confined to any one faith, or culture. Heck, it’s not even confined to one country. It is literally FOR EVERYBODY. True, it has a big focus on the darker side of our reality, and this may be against many peoples beliefs. To this I have to say:

  1. It’s fantasy …… not real. There is no problem with exercising the imagination a little and embracing our darker side for a spell.
  2. If we believe that Halloween glorifies evil and violence, and we want to limit our exposure to it, then I suggest we first remove the television from the home. There are no evils greater than the evils men do in real life. And these evils can be heard about and even seen on TV all day long. Don’t get me started on video games.
  3. It doesn’t have to be about the darker side. It is still ok to dress up our children as astronauts, firemen, doctors, or even a trees and obscure, but creative things.

While Halloween does not promote the spirit of giving and sharing like Christmas and Thanksgiving do, It does promote the spirit of community and creativity far better than they do. And truthfully the spirit of community is in very short supply these days, while the spirit of giving is just growing stronger and stronger every year. This is not for any sense of “love” mind you, but because the expectation is in place, and people love to get their “giving credits”. Big business promotes, and depends on this.

Christmas and Thanksgiving confine our kindness and love to our families and close friends; ya know, people we are already expressing kindness and love to. The tradition of Halloween however, has us going up to our neighbors homes (potentially strangers), and start up a dialog. Potential beginnings of new relationships. It is my opinion that the best “ice breaking” line we have here in American culture is: “Trick or Treat!”

Also consider Halloween costume parties. Now there are Christmas parties too, but most of them are confined to family and friends. ALSO, Halloween costume parties are far more friendly. This is just because everyone is in costume. Plenty of topics of conversation built in. Plenty of ice breakers: “Excellent costume man!”, “How did you get the wings to stay on?”, “How long did it take you to get that on”, “I would have never thought in a million years to make a costume based on that.”, etc.

The act of “Trick or Treating” (The very heart of Halloween) is not as prevalent as it was when I was a child. Paranoia is more prevalent instead. As we hear more about child abductions, and violent incidents, so many of us feel less safe taking our children out to do it. Over time this diminishes community relations, and creates a whole slew of other problems I won’t get into here. I encourage that we take back Halloween. Exercise more trust in our communities. Be safe, but be friendly, be kind.

 

Have a Happy Halloween

 

OOOO, and don’t forget to listen to my Halloween Radio Station: WHWR Halloween Radio. Available also on all mobile devices through the Radionomy app, and on the sidebar of my website.⇒>>>

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Minimalist Upkeep Part 4: Get the smallest one

In the event that we need to go shopping for something specific, it is good practice to get the item that fits our need or desire most perfectly without any of the extras we don’t need or want; extras costing us more money or space. This is what we call “shopping efficiently.” Most of the time this just means “Get the smallest one.”

As consumers, we are often easily tempted into making purchases that are more extravagant than we originally intended. Much of the time it’s not even because the “extras” we are purchasing are anything we have a specific desire for. It simply stems from the mentality that “bigger is better”, or “more is better”; and this is simply not true.

  1. Quantity doesn’t have a direct relationship with quality. In fact, many times it is the exact opposite. Often times the reason the maker could produce a greater quantity, is because they could do it in half the time, or with half the resources. Unfortunately this so often makes for a lesser quality item (but it all depends on the product in question). In essence, the maker spreads their resources thin.
  2. There is not just the quality of the item to think about. There is how this bigger/better item effects the quality of our life to think about. The questions we should be asking our self is:
    1. “Do these extras (that I didn’t initially desire) validate the extra space they’re going to take up?”
    2. “Is the extra cost associated with these extras really worth the gain, considering I didn’t have a desire for this extra until I saw it?”

Instead, let’s opt for the philosophy “Less is more”, and choose quality over quantity. Scrutinize not just on the quality of the item to be purchased itself, but also on how the item effects the quality of our life in general. Choose efficiency. Because in then end, that is what minimalism is really all about; Efficiency.

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Minimalist Upkeep Part 3: Life Changes

It is important to recognize, that as our lives change, we must let go of the old to make way (and room) for the new. As our passions and priorities change, we have to consider if our possessions associated with the old activities we do not do much anymore, are worth the maintenance time and space they take up. This can be difficult, as we often have a hard time letting go for fear we would lose a piece of ourselves, lose connection to that passion.

When we feel this way it is important to remember: These things we own are only tools; just tools. Tools used to help facilitate our passions. They are not the passions themselves. The passions are inside us. And in the event that our priorities and/or passions change back, most of the time these tools are easily re-attainable.

Here are some common life changes people go through that bring on difficult possession purging for many:

  • Marriage – All the material associated with the bachelor life must go. So lose the 3 stage beer bong, and pool table.
  • Children – It’s impractical to keep the flashy sexy sports car. It is far more practical to have the sedan, wagon, or mini-van.
  • Last child moves out – Downsize the home.
  • Retirement – No doubt there are a lot of materials that were work associated that can be purged. A uniform, dress shirts, ties, etc (depends on the profession of course).