Boo!

I'd say "Happy Halloween" but that would be, according to strict religious teaching, blasphemous... so, with that in mind... "Happy Halloween!"

When I was growing up I used to feel (with substanial reasons to back up my feelings), that demons and witches et. al., were real-- they posed an imminent threat to my life. This was partially due to the fact that my mother often looked and acted like a crazed, evil witch right out of the worst fairy-tale or ghost story. And this unfortunate circumstance was re-enforced by growing up next to a good sized cemetery...
Day and night--especially night--from my second-story bedroom window in the back of my house, I'd have a panoramic view of hundreds of graves, headstones, numerous dark starlings, crows, and various other creatures that inhabited the cemetery. And, no more than hundred yards or so away, directly in my line of sight, there was a very large, very dark tree, that never seemed to have any leaves on it--even in the spring and summer. I could easily be mis-remembering this, but that's how it seemed to me at the time. So, even though this great old tree could have been flourishing; replete with big green, then, later, red, orange and yellow leaves, I only remember the tree as black and leaf-less, with several big black crows eternally perched in its branches; or landing or taking off on some carrion mission.
So... scary--very scary-- Because of her words and deeds, my poor, demented mother inside, and the cemetery outside. The fear I absorbed from those endless days and nights is still in my bones...

But, when I got older--14, 15 and so on, the cemetery, during the day-time, especially when it was warm and sunny, often filled me with a kind of peace and tranquility. The less I believed in the reality of demons, ghosts and witches, the more harmless and even benevolent the light-gray granite headstones seemed to be-- Beloved Uncle, Beloved Father, Mother...
The sun glinted off the tombstones, the grass waved in the breeze and the old tree seemed protective and sheltering--guarding everything and everyone with its huge, strong prescence. I saw cardinals, bluejays, sparrows, robins, starlings... Even the crows seemed to lose their nefarious aura... There were white and brown rabbits aplenty in the cemetery and I watched them browsing or hopping around...
Sometimes, to escape the lunacy of my mother (and the danger of my own extreme feelings about her--talk about demons!), I'd actually go into the cemetery-- through a hole I'd cut in the high chain-link fence that separated the cemetery from our yard.. I'd walk around there, enjoying the silence and quiet-- I remember one time, escaping from the yelling and threats in house-- going into the cemetery one Sunday mid-afternoon, finding a fairly new grave and lying down, my head propped up against the stone--which was warm from the sun... I believe is was Beloved Uncle--don't remember the man's name... I drifted off into the most peaceful doze; only waking when I heard the engine of the cemetery maintainence truck headed my way... Didn't want to be arrested for frequenting a graveyard without a license, so I headed back, under the hole in the fence, into my own backyard...
Now, older; even, alas, OLD, and facing the realness of my own (and other people's) mortality, I realize, as I have for a long time now-- that the real demons are, of course, in my own head... Well, not all in there of course-- There's always Dick Cheney, Osama Bin-Laden, Sarah Palin and the like--they are scarier than any Grimm's witch or devil could ever be. So, if there's an excorsism, it has to be of what lurks and threatens your own, inner landscape... and, of course, trying to eliminate or at least subdue the actual demons (see above) by voting this coming Tuesday.
Jesus said, "The poor are always with us." True, and so are the witches and the demons... The war is eternal--the ways of combat are many-- from awareness to acceptance, to forgiveness-- and the occasional religious ritual for really stubborn entities... And, of course, using our vote.
Its supposed to be a positive expression of Democracy-- the right to vote; choosing the candidate of your choice. But so often, in the last few decades, its seemed to be the lesser of two evils. Anyway, there are a great many external demons to be dealt with now-- I hope that by Wednesday, absent all the various Republican attempts to steal the election, we will have excorsized at at least few demons...

I know-- this was a strange mix of personal and political ramblings; but that's what happens when you're possessed-- your reason wobbles...
Anyway, Happy Halloween and lets pray to the more benevolent spirits in the Universe that, come next Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, we can sleep a little sounder in our beds-- knowing we have a few of the worst haunters on the run...

Mike

mikefeder@nyc.rr.com

LiberalLand

My Friends (as John McCain might--and does--say over and over again)...

The area I live in (The Upper West Side of Manhattan) is so famously liberal that its nickname for a long time, was "The Upper Left Side". If McCain and his partner received one percent of the vote here it would either be machine malfunction or voter fraud.
That said, there are two very small groups up in my area that might vote for McCain...One is comprised of a couple of hundred older (average age about 80) Jews for whom Israel is everything. They just don't believe John McCain will interfere with social security or medicare etc. (though they are dead wrong) and they do believe that Obama is soft on the Palestinians and the Arabs. As far as they are concerned, the only good Arab (especially Palestinians) is one that is either gone entirely, or relocated to the moon.
These are people who lived through the Holocaust--some of them literally--some of them seeing their entire European extended families murdered... To them, Israel is everything. As I said, they don't see that McCain will ruin what little is left of their benefits and the laws that support them. And they are convinced that Obama wants to actually SPEAK these Muslim lunatics who want to have their own country! ...I guess they're right. Obama probably would speak to them. Thank God, somebody will start talking and not just shoot anybody who disagrees with this country--or its allies.
But even these people, and I know them pretty well, are wobbling on McCain because of... You Betcha! Sarah Palin. Even these old folks, with their prejudices, cannot stand that woman. She is the demented, ranting Christian of their old nightmares (and their all too real memories).
When this group considers Obama, that means that tens of thousands more like them in Florida might also be considering Obama too--and maybe for the same reason.

The other small group up where I live that might throw a thousand or so votes to McCain are the young bankers, lawyers, stockbrokers and real estate developers that have, in the last 10 years, more or less destroyed many old neighborhoods that used to thrive on The Upper West Side...
Despite all the crashing of markets, a lot of these people are still well off--even wealthy. And they smell higher taxes with Obama--maybe even (GASP!) REGULATIONS on their businesses!!!

But, aside from these two groups, thats about it for any election contemplation where I live. Its a pretty done deal. This neighborhood is the opposite of battleground state.

Mike mikefeder@nyc.rr.com