My Costume!

Thanks to several comments on Facebook about this year's upcoming Trunk or Treat, my Halloween costume has pretty much been picked for me!  I won't say what it is yet, but the staff have been told.  Suffice to say, there have been a lot of laughs around the office (it truly pays to be on staff at Horizons :-))  Sarah also has a great costume that will be unveiled this Friday.  Her's is still better than mine, but together we're sure to be an odd match.

But let me give you a little costume history for me:

Last year Sarah and I went to a party dressed as a birthday boy getting his first swing at a pinata.  I was the blindfolded boy, Sarah, wearing an outfit loaded full of paper tissues, was the pinata.  WE thought it was creative, clever, and hilarious.  Others didn't seem to get it.  Maybe we went to the wrong Halloween gathering.

A couple years earlier, when I was still in Seminary, I went to a Halloween gathering with some friends I'd known from high school.  One friend dressed as a lumber jack, the other dressed as Indiana Jones.  Both of their costumes were the hit of the gathering, while mine probably made them wish they hadn't let me get in the car that night.  In my clever, creative preparation for the night, I decided to be a serial killer.  I dressed in a blue jump suite, put vasoline in my hair, and found some crooked coke-bottle glasses to wear.  I looked creepy and imagined it was a great costume.  But as I looked around at the party, I realized "creepy" wasn't what anyone else was going for.  My poor friends had to keep assuring others that I really was a pretty cool guy...

One year I was so excited about my costume that I locked both my keys and my costume inside my car.  I was so upset when I realized that my stuffed-elephant costume could do nothing more than look back at me through the glass, not getting its one chance to change my streak of costume misfortunes.

So, I'm hoping that this year's costume goes over a little better.  It's not creepy, but rather pretty fun--and funny, if you ask me.    If I can get past locking it in the car with my keys, I think we'll be in business.

Lastly, I know that some have shunned the celebration of Halloween for its ties to pagan practices and to potentially demonic beliefs.  However, I'm happy that we as creative, God-loving people, can move past the labels and associations, and make a statement about how WE see the celebration:  a time to celebrate creativity, candy, laughs, and the changing of seasons.

We mark time together through things like this.
We add value to our lives in the ways that we share stories and comic memories of celebrations passed.
We encourage the creative sides of ourselves and process our identities through dressing up.
AND, through TRUNK OR TREAT at HORIZONS, we also have the chance to reach out to our neighbors and community and share with them who we are--both in our faith AND in our faithful world.

I prayerfully believe that we are on the right track.  Now, as far as this year's costume goes, we'll see...

More to come!!

Jason <><