B O O !

Ah, the seasons of the holidays is here.

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years.

Ahhh, time for family, food, fun and friends. Gatherings bring on winter, giving excuses to pack up the car and travel to eat, drink and be marry with family members we have forgotten about over the summer.

We dress up the children to present them to grand parents and aunts and uncles who they don't recognize. The kids hang around their cousins and play stupid games while the adults drink with reminiscence over previous holidays.

But the holidays have been slurred by the commercial economy forcing families to travel further, buy more, stress out and drink too much.

When did Halloween change from a cute holiday where children could dress up and go to neighbors houses for a candy bar at night. Treats didn't have to be tested and the decorations only conjured up wide eyes and happy screams of frighting fear.

So the next three months will have piles of items we must consume to update our holiday looks. Decorations will be brought down from the attics, dusted off and added to. There will be too much food and drink and in the end, another resolution to not do it next year, but that resolution will never be able to compete with the holiday insanity that overcomes us.

So now Halloween fright has become bloody gore. Thanksgiving blessing for the harvest bounty has become overwhelming sports on every channel. Christmas has been made into a competition of consumerism for another electronic device neither needed or wanted, but forced to be given. The celebration of the new year putting aside the past and looking forward to possibilities is nothing but glitter and light and sound.

Sure, I'm cynical about these days even though I made a living promoting them. But for those who are not traveling and cooking and eating and watching the celebration programming, it becomes overwhelming to watch. The stores are filled with scary rubber mask that look like my face the day after July 4th. And next to them are the pumpkins and brown leaves next to the pine trees and tinsel. So I don't decorate How many of those who sleep under bridges will celebrate?

And is it wrong for children to dress up like this the zombie walk?

Why not try something different this year? Instead of trick or treat.... how about "Treat or Trick"? (It's a habit started in high school and still going on). Enjoy the blood soaked children scrambling for more and more while taking a bag of candy and handing to the people at the door. The idea is instead of taking, you are giving.

It will make you happier and it is less filling.

B O O !