I blocked someone on Facebook today over a stupid opinion. Which I don’t like to do, but some things are so closed minded and dumb I just can’t with it. Instead of posting screenshots on my own page and dragging this person, I’m going down another rabbit hole on my blog.
Her issue was that Halloween is a fucked up and evil holiday because it celebrates death. And its insensitive to people who may have just suffered a loss to drive around and see decorations of dead bodies, bones and skeletons all over. This made me think back to my earlier blog, and how we treat and sanitize death.
Death is a part of life, whether we like it or not. One day every living thing will die. We may not know when or how, or what comes after. Some don’t think anything comes after. I find that a bit depressing myself.
I find belief in afterlife is a very personal thing and shouldn’t be limited to a single religion or dogma. My personal view is that we go to a spiritual realm for a time, could be a few years, could be centuries, and then are reincarnated when we are ready. That is my belief just based on studying lots of other cultures and belief systems. When someone I love dies, I’m sad and I grieve, but I know they still exist in some form. And there is no kind of suffering or torment involved.
Back to Halloween, since I was a kid I was fascinated with Halloween and horror and anything spooky. Even though my family was religious and our church said all that stuff was evil , but I was still drawn to the dark. Over the years, I feel the way I’m a positive upbeat person who is drawn to the dark and macabre, has made me a more balanced person. One who is positive and upbeat and cares about others, but also fascinated by darkness and Halloween.
I think a problem in our western society is death has become so sanitized. Even in hospitals, they cover the body and take it down a back way to a morgue in the basement. Many years ago I worked as a funeral assistant and would have to pick up bodies from morgues. Ever time I parked in a garage underground or behind the hospital and brought the body out the back way. It felt like it was so no one would know anyone ever died at that hospital. At least so it wouldn’t be visible to the public.
I get maintaining their dignity and such, but I also belive there is a way to do that without pretending it doesn’t happen. I talked about before the absurdity of the western funeral rituals. How its all about capitalism and sanitation. I had a friend who died about 20 years ago, he was a police officer killed in the line of duty. His funeral was a massive event with the full honors and fanfare.
Then the next day back to work, it was like he’d never existed. Sure they hung his photo on the honor wall, but his name was rarely mentioned again. A few officers got really angry if you even brought his name up at all. I think they were scared of facing their own mortality and he was a reminder of that.
Halloween is a time of year those of us who enjoy the darkness don’t need to hide who we are. We can be our true spooky selves which for a lot of us means dressing like normal and taking our usual decor and putting it out side for the public to see. As I get older I don’t like as much of the extreme gory stuff I used to in my younger years, but still love some good stpooky things.
Loving Halloween, horror or exploring death and the macabre doesn’t make you sick or “fucked in the head” like this Facebook person had said earlier. Many of the kindest most gentle people happen to be like minded. Hell, we have four cats and a dog. We just rescued a kitten named Diablo. No we don’t sacrifice them or anything weird. They are part of our family. Point is, we are loving caring people who just happen to love dark things.
I think this person and people like her are transposing their own fears and insecurities into things they don’t understand or that make them uncomfortable. I mean if you’re just not into those things, thats fine. And Halloween and horror are not for everyone. That doesn’t mean people who do like those things are fucked up. It just means its not for you, which is ok. I just got irked at this person going on how awful Halloween and people who love it are somehow messed up.
I just know I have to be careful most times of year on scaring the normies with my horror t-shirts or delving into something too off the charts weird. Halloween is one time of year I can just be myself. Ulimately, death and acceptance of it needs to become more normalized and not treated like such a taboo. We’ll all be much healthier when that happens.
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