Costumes & Candy

     Halloween seems to mean two major things to most people -- costumes and candy.
     The costume part probably has many ancient origins. In medieval Europe, All Hallows Eve was a time to scare and keep away the spirits of evil just lurking to get the pious unaware folks. Today, we just love the fun of it. Dressing up as a comically scary, growling pirate, a sexy maid, or a bloody ghoul delights the kid part of us. It's also fun to be temporarily not "ourselves," that image we're so careful to protect. We love to break out and pretend, if only for one night, that we're really different from the person our daily clothes say we are.
     Now, candy, that's the part of Halloween that gets us salivating. Candy sales in October are off the chart. Not just kids, but adults, too, look forward to consuming mass quantities of the stuff. Many a child has probable cause to indict her parents for raiding the candy haul after she went off to bed following Trick or Treating. Shame on us -- I mean them -- no, I did it, too. "Where are all the good ones, like Baby Ruth or Snickers?" they would ask. We'd clam up and keep silently repeating,"never admit, never apologize. "After all, we rationalized, they had so much.
    Many spiritual traditions ask us to look at what we crave. What we desire and how we desire it (sometimes "inordinately" as my Jesuit profs used to suggest) are great markers for our spiritual condition. The Buddha said that desire is the root of all suffering. He probably had in mind the ancient Indian equivalent of a dark chocolate Hershey's Kiss or a Chunky.
     The serious point is that I can be free of a lot of pain and distress if I can check my greed for anything. Wear the world like a loose garment. Hold on to stuff with loose hands. Enjoy, but try not to let anything own me. Savor, of course, but let go of attachment.
     Now, if I could just shake that jones for a dark chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.