Halloween issues an invitation to turn toward the mysterious, the hidden, the things that excite and frighten us because we don’t fully see or understand.
What intrigues you even if it doesn’t appeal to you?
3 thoughts on “Halloween”
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Once when I was spending a year in Ontario, Canada, as a university student. I went to a week’s summer session at a UU camp near Toronto. Although it was a week designated for adults, there were a few children there. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that (almost)) all of the attendees were naked when swimming in the small private lake on the property. Men, women and children were all splashing around merrily but I found I wasn’t able to shed my suit. Politely and with no comments, they allowed me to join them. It intrigued me and peaked my interest but obviously I couldn’t say that it appealed to me.
I can’t exactly say this doesn’t appeal to me, but more that I feel it isn’t something I would be able to commit myself to, and that I don’t belong to.
I came from a small town without much diversity. Almost everyone was either Catholic or one of two Protestant denominations. At school, you could count the kids who weren’t white without running out of fingers.
I went to a college that officially had/has no religious affiliation, but somehow became (unofficially) a Jewish school. Hillel was the largest student group, there was/is a kosher meal plan, and there was a Holocaust and Genocide Studies major. It was not that I’d never met any Jewish people–someone brought her prayer book that opened “backwards” to school, and at camp there was a counselor who has glad to answer our questions about her religion–but I’d never been surrounded by them, their culture, and their religion. I learned a lot about Judaism both in classes and by living in the midst of Jewish people. I was inspired to learn more by reading, too. I deeply appreciate and admire Jewish culture, faith, and philosophies, but I couldn’t bring myself to convert. However, I think if I were married to a Jewish person, I would happily participate in their traditions.
Interesting to compare, Maggie, that I had an opportunity to work as an arts counselor in a Jewish summer camp in upstate New York year ago. No one tried to convert me; I enjoyed the smoked salmon and bagels and the youngsters were fun to be with. It gave me a sense of how Jewish children interact with each other. I’ve also had several romances with Jewish men and do respect much of their religious philosophy but it doesn’t appeal to me as a life pattern.