Demons and Demagogues



cupcake-milkFor some the trick or treat season brings back warm memories of childhood friends and fun, while others focus their energy on the the overtones of hallows eve and worshiping some sort of demonic practice. 

The Bible says: “I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too.” 1 Corinthians 10:20.  Seems pretty extreme while you are searching for the best price on “the good candy” in the seasonal aisle of your grocery mega mart.  But the controversy is real for many people.  I remember one year though I can’t recall for what child, the elementary school did not allow costumes or candy grabs because of deeply held religious objections by some of the PTA parents.

Back then I was one of those Halloween houses that gave away puzzle games, notepads, and pencils because I thought I was being mindful.  Heck my mom was giving away nickels if not quarters which was her way of pissing off all the kids on the block.  But mom got a free pass on Halloween, because it was also her birthday, but that’s a bittersweet shaggy dog story for another day suffice to say its been eight years her absence from our lives and this day (or any day) does not pass that she is not remembered.

Because we hold on to our pain with both hands.  We kneed it like pizza dough and deliver it piping hot to our amygdala’s doorstep.  Our costume may read peace, love and harmony, but our heart is broken inside with mental noise of us against them, women versus men, real life and pretend.  And I dare say our intolerance as a society stems from our inability to sort through the crap and find the truth in a box of Good and Plenty.

So who is right?  Is Halloween a fun day of chocolate indulgence or something to be feared and avoided as Satan’s abundance?  How much we defend our beliefs determines the extent of our suffering does it not?  If our focus is on the highlight reel of warm sugar induced  memories of our relationship with the past then we can enjoy a moment of chocolate bliss.  But if our fear based anger and bigotry only allows us to bolster our own point of view because we believe all other opinions somehow threaten our position in the socioeconomic grab bag of tricks that we treat ourselves too in the mental miasma of our mind, well then we find our own porch light of happiness turned off with no one home inside to celebrate the peace, love and harmony.

Our intolerance of one another is more the fabric of our lives than the stray slipped stitch of the collective quilt.  We want more and more for everyone around us to think, blink and drink the koolaid from our particular political leader because we have been brainwashed into believing the false equivalency and other ghost stories of the campaign for our brain.

Look how easy it was to stir the cauldron this year?  How much smoke and mirrors did it take for you to jump into the chocolate fondue fountain and turn up the heat?  You either want to make America great again, believe we are great already, or realize we were never great because our own personal path of prosperity did not trickle down to everyone else on the next block, around the corner, across the state, back there in the try-to-forget places we were fortunate not to have to remember.

Divide and conquered.  Unwilling to accept our own fatal flaws to the extreme extent that we must believe they do not exist.  Because any crack in our armor means that we could be left unarmed and vulnerable to the ghosts and zombies and other demons trying to steal our bag of treats.

There is only so much candy in the bowl.  And we believe everyone wants a handout and we will be left with only the wasteland of Necco Wafers at the bottom of the bag.  By then our porch light will be turned off and the party will be over.

Perhaps it is our conditioned tradition of not fact checking our sacred texts, that we extend the long tall story telling to our favorite memes.  Cause facts simply don’t matter when evolution and creation are simply two opposing sciences.  When global warming is only a theory, and all lives matter is a euphemism that my life matters more because I deny your pain is real.

So what does it matter what we share, like or trend on the social network playground?  What consequence are a few heated words over a misleading meme?  Who looses when there is no winner at the end of the race? And who stands uncovered when the last thread is pulled from our custom of peace, love and harmony.

2 Corinthians 10:11
Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present.

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