October 25: On my run this morning, I overheard two younger mothers talking about Hallowe’en:
Mother 1: “…and she knows intellectually that they’re not real but she reacts emotionally and she’s so scared…”
Mother 2: “Well, you will have to help her find closure…”
Closure. Really ? It’s probably my spotty memory, but I barely remember my parents walking with me on Hallowe’en, never mind finding closure over some terrorist clown. I thought that the point was to be a bit scared of things and confront them in a safe environment – and to get some candy. There was always candy.
Of course, as I got a bit older, Hallowe’en was also about blowing up pumpkins with firecrackers, soaping windows, putting stink bombs through neighbourhood mail slots, and the old “invisible rope trick”. (Two people stand on either side of the street and mime holding a rope stretched across the road. It’s amazing the number of people who stop…). Mind you, I never actually did any of those things, it was Chris and Harvey, the troublemakers.
Point is: we had some mostly harmless fun at a time when people expected kids to get a bit rambunctious. I’m sure some smaller kids may have been a bit more frightened than I ever was, and perhaps they went on to be serial killers, but isn’t this how we learn how to confront the other – the things we may not be comfortable with or really understand ?
Closure ? Not for me. Send in the clowns, there must be clowns…..