November — aka The Holidays, aka the end of another year — is just a smidge over three months away.
To adults over 35 years age, that’s just around the corner: a mere few minutes’ walk until arrival.
It can’t arrive soon enough.
Traditionally the days after October’s Halloween are filled with images of smiling, joyous family and friends gathered in various scenes of community. Print, television and Internet ads show people of various ages, backgrounds (and presumed beliefs) celebrating a Thanksgiving homecoming, crowing over an exceptionally spectacular gift or heartily hugging each other at a New Year’s Eve celebration. Undoubtedly the scenes are contrived, manufactured to illicit a feeling of warmth, compassion and kinship designed, ultimately, to sell something.
These product-pushing scenarios compete with real life instances of community and generosity.
Volunteers in the Christmas in October program give their time and talent to rehabilitating homes that have fallen into disrepair by owners who don’t have the means to stay on top of the upkeep.
Shoe and toy drives hosted by National City and Chula Vista police officers brighten the days of kids who during the rest of the year get by with, maybe, the barest of necessities.
Politicians participate and gather attention for holiday meal giveaways. They challenge those with something to give to give a little more to those who have not much of their own.
Starting in October when Halloween rolls around — when children of all backgrounds dress in costumes that hide insignificant differences in favor of outfits that reveal the remarkable power of imagination and belief that you can be what you want without your humanity diminished and character judged —and the simple act of passing out candy brings immense fleeting joy to a young person, we’ll start seeing real and pretend scenes of community, generosity, compassion and unity.
We need them. Perhaps now more than we have in an extremely long time.
Our country’s recent history is bulging with instances of horror and terror. From the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting of five years ago, to the 2016 Charleston, S.C., massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, to the recent overt racist violence and attacks in Charlottesville, Va., the instances of neighbors turning on and killing them are plentiful.
We need the reminders that we can be happy together, we can do nice things for one another we can share our space, our time and ourselves with one another. Even if those reminders are contrived to sell products, we need them.
We need the “The Holidays” and the spirit of community and giving to get here already.
