Something Creepy

This Way Comes

Fall is my favorite time of year. The weather combines the perfect sunny warmth with a touch of crisp autumn wind. The turning leaves set a picturesque horizon. And to top it off... Halloween sits just around the corner.

Like many holidays, Halloween was once rooted in deep religious or cultural meaning but has now become little more than spectacle. As our helicopter society becomes ever more risk averse, Halloween loses more and more of the mystery that made it so exciting to my generation of children and teens. Trick or Treat without the Trick. Costumed kids that will be tucked safely inside their own home no later than sunset. In some places the “official” Trick or Treating actually occurs in November...

Many of you have seen merchandise adorned with the phrase, “Without the dark, we’d never see the stars.” Though it rings of truth, the quote is attributed to Edgar Allen Poe who never said such a thing. In fact, some scholars say the sentiment falls in direct contradiction to Poe’s writing.

I own the t-shirt and wear it ironically, hoping someone will call me out on it. For then, I will know I’ve found a kindred spirit.

Yes, Halloween has fallen far from what it once was. However. As an adult, I have taken it upon myself to bring back some of the shadow that used to obscure the lines between fun and fright. Between sweet and spook. If I cannot go to Halloween, I will bring Halloween to me.

Something deep in my soul craves a feeling of nervous tension, wondering if some creature watches me from the woods. It craves the mystery of stories past which still bring shivers around a campfire when listeners--not protected by sheets of whitewashed drywall and a fiberglass door--turn an ear to the wyrd. It prevaricates over the possibility than man is not, in fact, the apex predator we believe ourselves to be.

Many the author and philosopher alike have opined that one must be able to fear an imminent death to truly feel alive. Others suggest that one can only truly live after accepting their inevitable death. Either way, some of our most profound thinkers link the concept of inexorable demise to the human ability to gain self-actualization.

And thus, the need for a celebration of death, of haunts, of spirits, monsters, and devils is born. As a grimdark enthusiast, I’m not endorsing shadow as a religion. I don’t engage in witchcraft or demon worship. Rather, I celebrate the ability to survive side by side with the unknown. To overcome the frightening reality in which we live. To come to the end of a horror and feel the rush of having made it through yet another run of the gauntlet.

You might say, we need the dark... to see the stars. Hmmm. Maybe my t-shirt isn’t as ironic as I thought... Sure, Poe believed that our most profound horror came from within. And he might be right. But could it also be that he too understood that by creating, enjoying, and even celebrating the darkness within, humans burn brighter, act bolder, and dream higher?

I’d like to think so.

Rap, Rap, Rap.

“Who’s there?”

I hope it’s something creepy.