Scary Things …
It’s Halloween as I post this blog. So first, Happy Halloween from The Humanity Project!
This is one of my favorite holidays. Always has been, just as the autumn is my favorite time of year. Even in South Florida where I live, there’s a palpable change in the fall. As I listened to some fun Halloween music this afternoon, a thought about this day occurred to me: Halloween can be viewed as a celebration that is all about fear. And making fun of fear. As both a Halloween lover and an author who often writes about the role of fear in our lives, I found this idea intriguing.
It’s easy, of course, to launch into sage theories about any subject, theories that very quickly descend into nonsense. Sometimes there is no profound meaning beneath the surface. So I’ll try to avoid waxing too philosophical here. But think about it for yourself. Doesn’t Halloween encourage us to laugh at our fears? To me, that seems at least part of what this holiday celebrates. All the childish nightmares about witches and ghosts and black cats. We drag them out, dramatize them by hanging their images in our homes and wearing costumes – and have a grand guffaw about it all. If I’m right, I think this is a very healthy thing.
Because over and over, I see that fear is perhaps the worst enemy I face. I think that I see much the same thing in the lives of people I know well and even in the world at large. I believe fear wastes our talents. I believe fear ruins relationships. I believe fear can make us sick. And I also believe that most of us are afraid much more often and more deeply than we realize. I’ve tried to explore these hidden fears within myself for the past 30 years to help overcome them. I find that it’s very easy to ignore (to “repress,” in the language of psychology) my most powerful fears. For a while. But when I do that, they soon control me in ways I wouldn’t have imagined possible until I experienced it firsthand.
For me, part of the longterm cure for fear is self-knowledge. I suspect that’s just as true for others. I think that if we want to take more responsibility for our own life, and become a healthier and saner member of society in the process, we must begin to understand how deep our fears run. And how often these fears bubble to the surface of our daily existence in one way or another, whether we’re aware of it or not. But I’ve discovered that another part of the cure for my fear just involves relaxing. I have to make myself understand that most of my worst fears are irrational and often downright silly when I really face them. If Halloween truly is about making fun of our fears, then maybe we should see it as a model for real life. If I’m afraid, I can simply laugh at my fear and move forward anyway. Which only makes me appreciate this playful, joyful holiday more than ever. -- RSK
It’s Halloween as I post this blog. So first, Happy Halloween from The Humanity Project!
This is one of my favorite holidays. Always has been, just as the autumn is my favorite time of year. Even in South Florida where I live, there’s a palpable change in the fall. As I listened to some fun Halloween music this afternoon, a thought about this day occurred to me: Halloween can be viewed as a celebration that is all about fear. And making fun of fear. As both a Halloween lover and an author who often writes about the role of fear in our lives, I found this idea intriguing.
It’s easy, of course, to launch into sage theories about any subject, theories that very quickly descend into nonsense. Sometimes there is no profound meaning beneath the surface. So I’ll try to avoid waxing too philosophical here. But think about it for yourself. Doesn’t Halloween encourage us to laugh at our fears? To me, that seems at least part of what this holiday celebrates. All the childish nightmares about witches and ghosts and black cats. We drag them out, dramatize them by hanging their images in our homes and wearing costumes – and have a grand guffaw about it all. If I’m right, I think this is a very healthy thing.
Because over and over, I see that fear is perhaps the worst enemy I face. I think that I see much the same thing in the lives of people I know well and even in the world at large. I believe fear wastes our talents. I believe fear ruins relationships. I believe fear can make us sick. And I also believe that most of us are afraid much more often and more deeply than we realize. I’ve tried to explore these hidden fears within myself for the past 30 years to help overcome them. I find that it’s very easy to ignore (to “repress,” in the language of psychology) my most powerful fears. For a while. But when I do that, they soon control me in ways I wouldn’t have imagined possible until I experienced it firsthand.
For me, part of the longterm cure for fear is self-knowledge. I suspect that’s just as true for others. I think that if we want to take more responsibility for our own life, and become a healthier and saner member of society in the process, we must begin to understand how deep our fears run. And how often these fears bubble to the surface of our daily existence in one way or another, whether we’re aware of it or not. But I’ve discovered that another part of the cure for my fear just involves relaxing. I have to make myself understand that most of my worst fears are irrational and often downright silly when I really face them. If Halloween truly is about making fun of our fears, then maybe we should see it as a model for real life. If I’m afraid, I can simply laugh at my fear and move forward anyway. Which only makes me appreciate this playful, joyful holiday more than ever. -- RSK
posted by Robert Spencer Knotts | 8:08 AM
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