Life is Scary

Change comes, often bringing chaos. It is the human condition. I think that is why Halloween fascinates us. A lot of times, interesting things come out of the experience and life in general

We revamped our entire way of handling civil disasters after Orson Well’s broadcast of War of the Worlds where fictional Martians landed in New Jersey. When a fictional government official got on the radio and basically said, “We are your government and we have everything under control,” everyone panicked.

Sometimes entire cities are redefined. Consider a story out of Covina California told to me by an old-timer who could have been around at the beginning of the 1900’s. He told of a particular Halloween night where pranksters went around the city removing all the outhouses and moving them to other locations.

The people were outraged. “It is time for this new fangled indoor plumbing.”

The city fathers heard them and responded, but they had a problem. Covina had no place to put a sewage facility. A new city of West Covina had to be incorporated.

I am sure that this spawned a love-hate relationship. West Covina took a lot of shit from Covina, but in the end they had the last laugh. Most of the new businesses would locate in West Covina, including a large regional mall.

Change is spooky and we resist it. It requires a lot of time and attention. Things do happen and we have to change or at least think about change. America was supposed to have the metric system under Jefferson, but pirates stole the meter stick, which was to be the standard, made out of gold. We have ended up with the most antiquated measuring system known in the world. The only other user is Bulgaria.

When you hear the wind whipping up on Halloween night, it might not be as bad as you think. Wind’s unrest happens, not just on this night, but a lot of nights lately.

Take courage and persevere. Change may not be as bad as you think. Confront the demons. Don’t let your dreams be stolen by pirates. They might just be the neighbor’s kids and maybe when this all over, we can all laugh about it.

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