All Hallow's Eve

Few people today realize that All Hallow's Eve precedes All Saint's Day as a religious day.

Now, the day is about spooky sights, goblins and candy in abundance.

I remember when I was a child, while the decor was decidedly 'tingly', it lack the menace that seems to occupy most set ups today.

When did it become okay to be so violent, abusive and downright sick?

I also remember the caramel apples studded with chopped nuts and the popcorn balls as big as a blue dot softball. The bobbing for apples, the 'witch's brew punch', the fog machines and the dry ice.

I remember the little plastic halloween masks that had the precut holes for eyes and nostrils with a mere slit for the mouth that never quite lined up to any of your own features.

I remember neighbors pretending not to know you and handing you enough treats to give you a belly ache.

I remember the fun and the feeling of excitement.

Now, it just doesn't seem safe.

Halloween has been taken over by people who seem to be lost. To combat this trend, there are lots of people who go to events hosted by various churches and civic groups. You can let the kids eat the food, because you know the people who brought it.

I want the days of a simpler life as a child to return. I don't want to think about everything that is no more.

I want to think about little pumpkins filled with goodies and the fun that used to be part of the night.

and I want to have my thoughts filled with those last caramel coated bites of apple before bedtime.

Happy All Hallow's Eve.

Writer's Block

I used to have a fantasy of creating a neighborhood.

It was in my mind that each of the places in that neighborhood would have a name that sort of set that street apart from the others both in theme and character.

Since my relationship to the Rockerfellers or Getty's is sketchy at best, my chances of building my dream is realized only in Lego's at this point in my life.

Like all wanna be's, my delusions of grandeur when it comes to writing come crashing down around my head once in a while. It doesn't prevent me from placing my fingers on the keyboard again for another try, but it tempers when those events occur.

More and more, I find that the way my mind works is disfunctional.

While that might be suitable for the day to day events that are my life, I realize that true greatness in writing doesn't work that way.

A lot like my idea of forming a neighborhood, it can't be done without the necessary resources, and in this case, those would be adequate literary training.

Like a ship without a rudder or a dozer missing it's working blade, I tend to write in circles that look busy, but produce no direction and no discernable work.

So I ponder how I can get to what I desire.

I'd like to have a way to write the things I see, however incomplete they are in my head and heart, but bring them full circle so that someone else would see some worth in the project.

But the dreaded writer's block rears it's ugly head.

Perhaps a merging of the two ideas is in order. A neighborhood and writing combined into an alliance.

Let's see: Welcome to Bookend Estates. Here is a map of our neighborhood and our community. You will note our office, gathering place and clubhouse are all located conveniently here on 'Writer's Block'.

Turning from there to go into the neighborhood, you will follow one of several roads which are interconnected throughout the community. Since our community is seeking to be energy efficient, the use of golf carts and electric vehicles is strongly encouraged. Therefore we have outlined on the map the various paths and their intersections with the main roadway.

We have the Psycho Path for those who are having a hard time connecting with reality.

There is the Sylvia Plath for those who are feeling a little depressed, but write their thoughts out anyway.

And in the back, for the idyllic newly wedded writers who have yet to come out of their romance with the language, there is the Bridal Path.

Yeah, I know...

stupid.

But that is the kind of innane random thought process that grips me when I have a migraine and it hangs over me for days.

If you are fortunate enough to avoid the writer's block that is part of my personal struggle - I will look for your works on the New York Times Bestseller's list.

If you, like me, are part of the unfortunate crowd, I'll save a spot for you on Rorschach Road. We'll study the oil stains and see if we can come up with universal meaning.

In the meantime, God bless!