It’s spooky season again, but this year I’m thinking that the scariest thing is how many people I know that are really struggling, how many are a missed paycheck away from some really horrible outcomes, how many cannot meet basic needs, how many are right now facing a horror story worse than any ghost, goblin, or vampire.
I have loved this stupid weird holiday since I was a little kid.
My birthday was just a bit before it (the 19th), so the decorations going up meant that my birthday was close as well and then after dressing up like some creepy creature or another and stomping around the neighborhood getting all the free candy a pillow case could carry.
Today I feel the monsters are the everyday struggles, the feeling of terror or dread that even as bad as it is now, it could be much, much worse if a couple more things fell out of place.
These are the monsters of adults, none of your clanking chains or chilly fingers.
If your health has any issues, that too can be scarier than what is at the top of the stairs in the dark, and medical procedures like a colonoscopy or a scan can seem more like torture than anything in the latest ‘Saw’ film.
Maybe that is why I and others love Halloween so much, it is a safe space to be scared and also scary in, a way to feel the emotions and adrenaline of the darker side of things without actually being in any real danger.
It shows us facing fears in a way that is more entertaining than terrifying, and of course safe because there is no safety switch for the adult monsters.
However, we can learn to fight those monsters like the protagonists fight the forces of darkness in all those old films.
We can use knowledge like the torches used on Frankenstein’s Monster, using the information to light the path ahead of us, we can wear rings of positivity and kindness like rings of garlic against psychic vampires, or we can grab hold of the Mummy’s bandages and unravel our hang ups and problems if we dare.
Far be it from me to argue with a man with a history as important as Franklin D Roosevelt, but I think there are things to fear besides fear itself, while still taking on what he meant.
Real world consequences abound if we are not aware and actively campaigning against those adult monsters, but we should not fear them but perhaps embrace them as part of ourselves.
A wonderful woman who I have much respect for recently told me to embrace my demons, give them a hug and make them a part of me proper, like a long lost son finding his real family again.
This I feel was not only the purpose of Roosevelt’s famous quote as well as all the horror stories as old as time…to not only fight your monsters but also to ride and embrace the fear they represent because it is only by conquering them all we can get to the part of the story where the monsters are gone and the sun shines again.
