A Karmic Balance

We’re posting this Sunday Sermon just past midnight to get maximum effect for our holiday message. The true spirit of Halloween, we fondly remember, is very un-Christmas-like -- it's about acting out, picking fights, and getting into trouble. But do not despair. This can be a good thing.

We admit our perspective is jaded -- it was formed after many a dark October night in New York City -- but to us, Halloween, has always been the perfect karmic balance to the Christmas season.

Consider:

Christmas is about gift-giving, bonding with family, and nestling in the comfort of your home; Halloween is running into the streets, crashing on strangers’ doors, and demanding things from them.

Christmas is about birth, hope and renewal, after the shortest, most sunless days of the year; Halloween is laughing at death, fear and despair, just when things are turning for the worse.

In short, Halloween is the anti-Christmas -- a vulgar, colorful, screeching contrast to the final, solemn scene. But it enables us to accrue enough guilt for that one time of the year when we're all happy to be civilized. And for that, we should all be thankful.

But remember -- all things in moderation. Do nothing today to harm yourself or your neighbor, nor anything unatonable during the pre-solstice stretch.

[Full disclosure: I work for Eastwick Communications, a Silicon PR Valley agency founded by three good witches.]