A Piece of Candy and a Little Something Extra

Halloween at my house is always a chaotic affair. Because my neighborhood is flat, self-contained, and has a good number of houses jammed together, we get a lot of trick-or-treaters. Some of them actually live in the neighborhood.

Most, however, are driven in by these soccor moms who drive slowly down the street, alongside their kid as he or she rushes up to the door to exact upon adults the only revenge that kids can.

Now that's just plain lazy. So it's a little chilly. Put on a coat and walk with your kid. I doubt the expended calories would put you behind for the day.

But I digress. At the stroke of 6 p.m., I saw a line of cars stream into the neighborhood. It looked oddly like a funeral procession. At about 6:15, the madness started.

I was ready. I had my 9 bags of candy, large mixing bowl, scissors for fast opening, trashcan so I don't slip on a discarded bag and kill myself in my hurry to provide kids with more cavity-causing material.

Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong...

Two hours later, it stopped almost as quickly as it started. After checking for any strays on the front walk, I flicked off the lights and settled in to survey the spoils I had picked around for myself.

Plenty of Reese's, that's good...some Butterfingers...

As I looked at my hands poking through the few remaining pieces of candy, I noticed something was amiss.

Wasn't I wearing...Nah. Wait...I was wearing one because of the cut on my thumb...

My bandaid was gone.

The Misplaced Target

I had an interesting comment on my previous post by a gentleman named Doug. He brought up the point that Halloween isn't something children are exposed to day in and day out. While I may have a point that overly realistic decorations are deleterious to a young person's development, perhaps things such as video games and television programming are a bigger priority in need of addressing.

Addressing. That seems to mean "identify and fix." I don't think all entertainment mediums automatically need fixing. I'm not a huge fan of war-like video games, complete with 3D blood splatter flying out of television screens. I am weary as to where entertainment is going to go from here? We've pushed and pushed from "Leave it to Beaver" to "South Park" and "Family Guy." Is Family Guy responsible for schoolyard stabbings and neighborhood drive-bys? Of course not. But what, if any, role does entertainment media play in our development as individuals and as a society?

Books are not immune from this debate. I hesitate to post this for fear of complete misinterpretation, but as nary a soul reads the blog anyway, I figure I'm relatively safe. I read "Huckleberry Finn" for the first time as an undergraduate in college. Yeah, seems a bit late to be reading that, but at least I got to it eventually. There is a certain word beginning with the letter "N" that is sprinkled liberally throughout the book. I was enthralled by the story and did nothing else but read it over a period of about 12 hours. Time after time after time, I encountered the n-word.

At first it jarred me from my reading flow. "Wow. I knew it was coming, but...wow." It's a shock to see it on the printed page.

I resumed my reading, tripping over the word, and then only mildly noticing the word...and then feeling the word become a seamless part of the story.

I closed the book and headed out of my dorm room for dinner. Inside the cafeteria, people bustled about, trays rattled, and silverware clinked against dishes. Ahead of me in line was the football team. I thought to myself, "Gosh, i didn't realize so many members of the team were "n-s".

Upon realizing what thought had come through my brain, I almost passed out. Good God! I was so shocked at myself. I was completely astounded, dumbfounded, that after reading one book, a book considered a classic, I temporarily became less of a person. How did this happen?

I wasn't paying attention to what I was consuming (the book, not my dinner). I got caught up in the entertainment of it, and passively allowed any and all influence of the book into my subconscious mind.

The element of entertainment most in need of addressing is our consumption. It is likely not going to kill our brains to spend many hours watching questionable television programming or shooting at something on the screen. However, continuing to passively engage in entertainment with no thought as to what it means, what role it plays in our lives and the shaping of our worldviews...that could kill more than just our brains.

PS-Thanks for the comment, Dad. You know how much I love having to back up my wingnut ideas and theories.