{"id":1166,"date":"2012-10-31T19:38:31","date_gmt":"2012-10-31T23:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lemasney.com\/2012\/10\/31\/on-halloween\/"},"modified":"2020-07-11T15:43:42","modified_gmt":"2020-07-11T19:43:42","slug":"on-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/2012\/10\/31\/on-halloween\/","title":{"rendered":"On Hallowe’en"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Crapt<\/a>

Crapt fattie fattie by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org<\/p><\/div>\n

I don’t take part in Hallowe’en<\/a>, I don’t feel guilty, and I don’t support giving out handfuls of candy<\/a> to anyone for any reason. Our focus, socially, is off. I have a few other reasons to dislike the holiday, including the passing of my mother, lots of lost childhood popularity contests, and a dislike for the faux, but this post is about giving, identity, and food.<\/p>\n

I am a socialist, if you need to know, on the political scale, but I’d rather give someone money or help or some other support than candy. I refuse. We should all be giving things away to those who need them, and not recollecting in different forms. I suggest Goodwill, or freecycling<\/a>. But the idea of us all buying the same candy from the same distributors in droves to exchange with each other out of some wacky societal pressure to take part is, in a word, odd.<\/p>\n

Have a party if you like, dress up for kicks if that’s what you’re into. For me, I think there is enough wonder, mystery, and surprise in who we actually are, and that we should focus on that. You should get to know me, and in reading this post you are, much more so than if I came to your door or party dressed as Heisenberg<\/a> from Breaking Bad.\u00a0I support getting to know others, though I’ve never done it on Hallowe’en in a 30 second exchange at the door, often with people I have only ever seen at my door for that purpose. I have gotten to know people better at gatherings, but no one needs to wait until the 31st of October to have a gathering. You can even wear costumes if you like, but I’d prefer to see you dressed to explain who you are, not how well you can emulate someone else’s creation. Make your own character, and have it be a bit about you. Or, just be you.<\/p>\n

No one needs to eat a bag of candy. No one. This blog is nothing if not about health, and I would be dishonest if I said that it was fine and okay to excite anyone about eating thousands of calories in some gluttonous orgy of chocolate. Have some delicious, extraordinary chocolate, be aware of how much you had, and enjoy it. I had a bagel today, a treat, with some dark chocolate<\/a> in it. The warm, toasted chocolate met and mingled with the\u00a0salt in the bagel. It was delicious, and special, and no one ever handed one to me at their door on Hallowe’en.<\/p>\n

In much the same way that other American holidays<\/a>\u00a0are\u00a0about purchases, discounts, fear, escaping identity, excess, comparison and guilt, I think this one leads the pack. I’m not participating.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t take part in Hallowe’en, I don’t feel guilty, and I don’t support giving out handfuls of candy to anyone for any reason. Our focus, socially, is off. I have a few other reasons to dislike the holiday, including the passing of my mother, lots of lost childhood popularity contests, and a dislike for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3653,17],"tags":[311],"class_list":{"0":"post-1166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-insights","7":"category-photography","8":"tag-food","9":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3h6y2-iO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":138,"url":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/2015\/06\/07\/dead-words-on-dead-wood-cc-by-lemasney\/","url_meta":{"origin":1166,"position":0},"title":"Dead words on dead wood cc-by lemasney","author":"lemsy","date":"2015-06-07","format":"image","excerpt":"Here's an illustration of the idea that messages printed on paper, books and magazines are \"dead words on dead wood\", and while a great many books of mine are beloved despite this, I have tried desperately to remove unnecessarily printed paper from my life. 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Love that place, great conversation, and well worth the walk. night walk in OCNJ (fitbit record)[\/caption]","rel":"","context":"In "consulting"","block_context":{"text":"consulting","link":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/category\/consulting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"night walk in OCNJ (fitbit record)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/night-walk-in-ocnj.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1331,"url":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/2010\/06\/27\/188-of-365-is-about-appearances-in-inkscape-angels\/","url_meta":{"origin":1166,"position":2},"title":"188 of 365 is about appearances in #Inkscape #angels","author":"lemsy","date":"2010-06-27","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently got a request from repeat requester and friend Shannon who asked about a sketch thusly: Challenge:Punked out angel wings, with the caption \"I only LOOK like an angel\" Inspiration: A white, fluffy fru-fru dog who's well-deserved nickname is Punk (owned by a good and mutual friend of ours\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "portfolio"","block_context":{"text":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/category\/portfolio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Looks like an angel","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/20100627likeanangel.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/20100627likeanangel.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/20100627likeanangel.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5884,"url":"https:\/\/lemasney.com\/consulting\/2011\/02\/08\/39-of-365-is-a-life-swallowed-inkscape\/","url_meta":{"origin":1166,"position":3},"title":"39 of 365 is a life, swallowed #Inkscape","author":"lemsy","date":"2011-02-08","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 I recently decided to jump-start submissions for requests on 365 by asking for random captions and titles for pieces. 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