Monday, October 30, 2006

Trick or Treat... UPDATED: Why we so need this tradition of trust & hope in BushWorld


It is Trick or Treat in our neck of the woods today. Here is BabyGirl... she is a "sparkley witch" complete with black and purple velvet. Let's face it... the days of Hollywood's scary hag with a green face and wart are just so passe. Today's ladies of the dark arts know how to combine beauty, brains, and arcane knowledge with a chic ensemble. You go BabyGirl!

UPDATE: That was my quick post for Sunday afternoon. I LOVE Halloween (for me, the holiday season kicks off with my wedding anniversary on Oct 23rd, followed by Halloween, carries thru w/ Thanksgiving and Christmas, and wraps up w/ New Year's). Unlike my Repuke wingnut evangelical inlaws and their crazy ilk, it is not nor could it ever be a "Satanic" holiday. And I also wanted to share a pix of my kiddo, whom I am fiercely proud of, and I will happily show her off to blog-world any chance I get. But after the entire Trick or Treat experience on Sunday afternoon (in our area, we hold Trick or Treat usually from 3 to 5pm the Sunday before Halloween. It is done this way for safety reasons and so hopefully more parents can participate b/c it is the weekend) got me to thinking about why exactly this tradition is so very needed today in BushWorld. Trick or Treat is based completely on trust and hope... something that is completely absent in Bush's America. Not only do we blindly open our homes (our very own version of a fortress) to complete strangers who happen to be dressed up in disguises-- oftentimes very scary ones-- but we also take our children out (clearly the most precious "items we own" on earth) to walk among complete disguised strangers and allow them to go to the door of a complete stranger and actually beg for food that complete strangers have handled. THAT requires complete and utter blind trust. THAT is a something that must really burn BushCo's ass. They cannot exist if we are not quaking in fear. They are the admin of gloom, doom, fear, hatred, and mistrust. And I'm willing to bet that some of the kids you passed out candy to and/or received candy from, came from households that practice different religions & beliefs... and dare I say?... could have even been Muslim... *gasp!* Yes, Halloween is an ancient pagan celebration of the end of the harvest before the death of the crops in winter, and the passing on of loved ones to the other world of the dead (and rightfully should be reverred as such, as the Mexicans wisely do, b/c if you do not honor and respect the dead, you sho 'nuff probably do not appreciate and respect the living) but Trick or Treat was born as part of this 2000 yr old Irish tradition. It came about as a represenation of the journey that souls must take while moving to the other world. The custom of trick-or-treating as we recognize it today is thought to have originated w/a custom called souling. On Nov 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread w/ currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven. That same ancient tradition of trust and hope among strangers lives on to this day, thankfully. There is no screeching & snarling by Lynne Cheney that CNN is lying about the many crimes of this admin and claiming that CNN is a propaganda tool for the terrorists. There is no happy, shiny endorsement of waterboarding by The Lying Big Dick by calling it mere "dunking." There is no distortion of truth by Rove the Toad about "THE Math" of elections. There are no ramblings from Lithium Laura about daring to question Dear Leader and his war is somehow helping out the terrorists. There is no coverup of inexplicably missing weapons in Iraq that were intended for Iraqi security forces and a string of massive fuckups in Iraq that are mindboggling. There is no Hastert coverup of a Defense Dept corruption probe. There are no insane ramblings by our Prez that democracy is A-okay for the nations he plans on imposing it upon, but sadly, not good enough for America. It is merely a celebration of human trust and hope. We trust that the spooky disguises will not scare us. We trust that those who we offer food to will not harm us. We trust that our own precious children will not be harmed or scared. We trust that complete strangers will behave as we want them to and not hurt or posion our children. I for one love that idea. Trust like that is sorely lacking in BushWorld, and no amount of Homeland Security color charts can detract from that kind inherent trust we place in each other as fellow human beings. THAT more than anything must enrage BushCo. THAT goes against everything they spew at us in their fearmongering vomitous tirades. THAT is something I plan on instilling in my children and they can hopefully pass on to my future grandchildren. THAT is based on trust, hope and faith in fellow human beings. THAT is what can lead to agreements of peace and an end to the war-mongering insane bloodthirsty ideology of the Neo-Cons, the Religious Fright, and the GOP.
Posted by Tina :: 12:30 AM :: 18 Comments:

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