…And that is why the Blessed will say “We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven, : and the Lost, “We were always in Hell.” And both will speak truly.”
– – – – -CS Lewis, The Great Divorce
Last week at the Dillsburg Farmers Fair, I looked at a series of dilapidated houses lining Baltimore Street. Normally they would be an eyesore, but they fit perfectly well in October; as if someone went all-in for Halloween.
A rotten faced Jack-o-lantern supervised the street from the porch next to me. My face was literally a battleground between a couple faint tangential sun rays and the crisp breeze. Second-hand cigar smoke overwhelmed the smell of decaying leaves.
‘Tis the season for entropy. It’s a time to consider the rot, rust, cold, and systems winding down to the end of their season. Do we deny the dark? Should we fear God as anti-autumn?
Sometimes Halloween seems like the new (cultural) Christmas. There’s tradition and community togetherness with only a small fraction of the materialism, pressure and obligation. In our small development, neighbors that are seldom outside and drive by without so much as a nod are suddenly welcoming and generous with their time.
Fall is a humbling reminder of our brevity, our limitations, and the ultimate fate of our corporeal being. This is reality, not dabbling in the occult. There is too much evil among the living during all seasons to worry about the Field of Screams and whatnot among the dead.
Must we deconstruct the heebie-jeebies? Shouldn’t apparitions reflect light (to be seen) -or- be able to walk through walls? Why would they ever be seen in clothing? Does ghost clothing also go to the “other side” and defy the basic laws of matter? The physical form and function of most monsters and zombies would never work anatomically. Something limping and bumbling along like that could easily be avoided before getting close to your brains.
But seasonal affective disorder is very real. And our ability to consider mortality and wonder what’s next – this I take seriously. Have you ever attempted to truly plumb the depths of a rotten jack o’lantern?
To me, the most frightful, hideous idea is a world where entropy is the bottom line, cold, black, and eternal. Winter is indeed coming.
But then so is the light! All you ever need to do is wonder why and from where came the light!
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He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11
Bonny Lane Club 