‘Tis the spookiest weekend of the year! This morning I listened to some pieces on fear. We seem to live a lot in fear these days. Haven’t we always?

One of the segments talked about why we are attracted to horror. Google the question if you want! You’ll find plenty of articles. I’m someone not attracted to horror. I get too upset even as people tell me, “It’s only a movie.” This annoys me. I’m not an idiot. I know it’s a movie. Why not flip that around? Why is it scary if you know it’s fake?

But I don’t begrudge anyone loving their horror films. Love what you love! Enjoy that jump scare! Scream that delightful scream!

So, I won’t be settling down any dark and stormy night to watch that slasher film. No, no, and no.

Yet, I love Halloween. I love the spooky, the eerie, the mysterious night. I don’t want vampires or zombies or serial killers lurking in the shadows. Instead, give me souls looking into the otherworld, reading the stars, living outside the norm–not in a way that brings fear and death but that expands the known and understood.

You know, I’ve gotta pull out that Shakespeare quote.

Of course, people use this quote to justify all manner of nonsense as a way to con people out of their money, time, or emotional reserves. But it does remind us that there’s more to the universe than we know. Our eyes don’t see all. Our tools haven’t solved everything.

Halloween reminds us the veil between the known and the unknown still exists, and some us risk trying to peer behind it. The dead, for me, isn’t a zombie horde or hacked up camper. No. On Halloween I take time to remember loved ones gone. I remember them every day, my mother and grandmother, and others I remember often. But it’s one thing to think of someone in the midst of a busy day and another thing to place their picture in a place of honor and share a story you remember about them.

Witches know the veil is there. Witches aren’t afraid to touch its threads and move it just enough to glimpse the other side. And say hello.

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