October 25, 2024

Greetings Everyone!

It is the last week of October and in this, my final October posting, let us sum up what we have learned during the month.

*  Ray Bradbury talks about the autumn people and warns us against them, claiming that they are soulless, evil things that seek to ensnare humans.  But there are also autumn people who have souls and are not evil; they love autumn and celebrate the death of the year and the renewal that always follows.

* Bradbury, again,  describes Halloween with images that seem to suggest death: the cold wind; the velvet grave-cerements; the smoke-like funeral plumes; images that seem to be a threat to our existence. But Halloween is not about death—it is about life. And the candles burning in jack o’ lanterns represent life and the celebration of the everlasting life to come after death. 

* H. P. Lovecraft personifies October as a “mystic pilgrim” who comes from a far land down the road to farther lands.  Lovecraft did not believe in “farther lands,” but I do—and I think that most of you do as well—farther lands of beauty and promise where we can, if we have enough love, hope and faith, make all of our dreams come true.

* Finally, Edgar Allan Poe describes a man journeying on Halloween night through a nightmarish place, encouraged to keep going  by the beautiful vision of a ghost planet. But he  ends up standing before the tomb of his dead lover—the Lady Ulalume; he has been tricked by the woodland ghouls into a confrontation with Death.  

This is the ultimate Halloween trick or treat.

But it is also a blessing.  For now, he can come to terms with his sadness and his emptiness and put them to rest, just as his lover is now at rest. And then he can move on to a new life and to the future that always waits for those who keep moving forward. 

JLS