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Halloween

Tomorrow is Halloween. Since I was a child, I have always loved Halloween. Every year, I would prepare for weeks in advance for the night. Our home on South Lincoln Road would be covered with all kinds of decorations, and the lawn full of all kinds of ghouls and 'spirits'. My grandmother bought me one of those lawn inflatables that are many feet tall: I remember it, a large pumpkin with three ghosts flying out of it. It was a lot of fun, and when the night finally came, the lawn of my house filled with neat decorations was such a happy sight.  Perhaps the height of my decorating career was harkened by the arrival of the police. You see, one autumn, my mother bought me a new fog machine, a special fog machine. Unlike the other ones that could only run in intervals, this one could run continuously. So, when Halloween came, a thick mist hung over not only our home's front yard, but over the street as well. Of course, the source of this manmade weather manipulation was quite obvious, and the whole operation was shut down promptly.

Of course, tomorrow won't be like that, nothing like that, in fact. The days of old are behind me, and yes, I am realizing that my childhood left me many, many, many years ago. The things I enjoyed as a child are no longer available to me — many of them, at least. It makes me sad. These are heartwarming traditions that are now merely nostalgic memories of yesterday. 

Certainly, somehow I will mark the admittedly bizarre holiday, but, things change... 

See if you can pick out the verse from 1 Corinthians 13 that led me to this beautiful chapter. 

Also, I'll copy two relatable quotes from my favorite book, Catcher in the Rye (J.D Salinger). Both are from Chapter 16, and illustrate Holden Caulfield's love for the never-changing Natural Museum. 

...ברך לך

The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and their pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.

Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. I know that's impossible, but it's too bad anyway.




1 Corinthians 13


(1) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. (2) If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (3) If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

(4) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. (5) It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. (6) Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. (7) It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

(8) Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. (9) For we know in part and we prophesy in part, (10) but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. (11) When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. (12) Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

(13) And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

(NIV)

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