Happy Halloween!

There are days that it is alright to lie to your children. Halloween, Easter, Christmas, when they lose a tooth… there is actually psychological proof that perpetuating the belief of mythological beings to our children extends the ability to believe the world is a safe easy place to live a little longer. Believing in the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, or a benign version of Dracula make it harder for a child to equate that reality with one that has actual gun play, violence, and death. My son honestly believes that Santa snuck in the house last year and let me get a photo of him putting presents under the tree. The Easter Bunny spends months dyeing eggs and hides them all Sunday morning. The Tooth Fairy is really really pretty and covered in glitter. I personally didn’t address that one, as I found it fascinating he associated the Tooth Fairy with the Fairy princess persona all on his own. As long as he thinks Santa eats the cookies, the Tooth Fairy leaves the quarters, and the Easter Bunny leaves him a basket full of goodies he doesn’t pay all that much attention to the flooding, the death, the despair that covers the globe as the mass media paints a horrible picture of everyday life.

I will do my part to extend this belief system as long as possible. I will nurture the nativities as long as possible because once the innocence is gone and replaced with awareness there is no turning back. I will dress up for Halloween, sprinkle reindeer food in the yard with him, and make glitter footprints on the floor. I will hide the teeth, wrap the presents, and write the notes. I will love that sweet innocent little boy as long as I have him, and do my best to teach the young man that replaces him the right and wrong way to go about this world.  Having a son, a child in general has allowed me to remember the way the world looked a little different when there was a Santa Claus, how exciting a loose tooth was, and how thrilling Easter morning was because there were goodies in baskets waiting for me. When we decorate the house together his joy infects me, and allows me to momentarily forget all the bad things and the lights on the Christmas tree are enough. And walking him through the halls of his school this morning while all the children “ooohed” and “ahhhhed” at my voodoo makeup job made me laugh because my son was proud of me for dressing up for Halloween. And all it took was some eyeliner.