Tue 31 Oct 2006
It’s halloween today of course, and I hate dressing up. Call it insecurity or shyness or whatever, I just hate the whole procedure and have since I was a little kid. Work this year encouraged us to dress up in costume but of course I didn’t like usual.
It reminds me of a sad story from a few years ago today when I worked at an office for a reinforcing steel (rebar) company where they also encouraged everyone in the office to dress up. At the time I actually went to the effort of getting a costume this time though, but I definitely didn’t want to wear it. In fact after I drove to work I sat in my car for minutes unable to decide if I should remove my costume before I went inside or not. Eventually I chickened out and left the costume in the car and went in to find everyone in the office was very very somber.
Why? Because earlier in the day one of the people out in the manufacturing plant was killed in a gruesome industrial accident, totally unrelated to halloween of course since they weren’t costumed. But the whole time I was petrified in my car about something as petty as whether or not to wear a costume, other people were dealing with the horrible death of a friend and co-worker — many of whom would eventually quit because it was too traumatic. To think of how petty I had been while others were going through genuine problems made me feel very, very small.
But still not enough for me to wear a costume this year. I’m just lame.
October 31st, 2006 at 5:48pm
And while they were thinking about the death of their friend and coworker, lots of other people in the world were dying in wars or of starvation or being worked to death in diamond mines. Someone always has it worse off.
If you’d continued to be upset about the costume situation even after finding out about the other situation, THEN you’d have had a problem.
October 31st, 2006 at 11:49pm
fluffy: Your rationalization of the situation is of course correct, but taken to its logical conclusion you’d never really care about anything one way or the other since something elsewhere is always better or worse than what you are feeling.
It just really hit me hard on that day in particular about putting things into perspective because of the immediate contrast between my own panic about nothing vs. my friends and co-workers crying because someone literally got smashed into a bloody pulp right in front of them.
November 1st, 2006 at 10:39am
I never wear a costume, but i’ve been thinking lately that I should. I just never find the time to put it together. :)
November 2nd, 2006 at 10:00am
Wear a toque and be nice to everyone. Say “eh” a lot. Instant Canadian costume. And really, it’s you anyways.
I agree with fluffy, but I can see where you’re coming from. That particular day is over though.
If we’re ever in the same city for Halloween. Maybe Ricky and Julian cosutmes? There’s no way we couldn’t have laugh-till-you-cry fun with that.
November 2nd, 2006 at 10:44am
geek: I think we’d have to be Ricky and Ricky costumes.. :-)
November 2nd, 2006 at 4:13pm
A young Buddhist monk walked with an elder monk on their way back to their temple after several days of travel. On the way, they came to a creek bed, the banks of which had softened to a wet, slushy mess. At the edge of the creek stood an attractive young woman dressed in traditional gowns, who was obviously wanting to cross the water but had no idea how to contend with the mud. If she attempted to traverse it, her legs would surely sink shin-deep into the muck.
As they approached the young lady, the younger monk averted his eyes and looked down, for theirs was a stern discipline, and monks were not allowed to gaze upon a woman, let alone speak to or interact with her, particularly when the woman was as fetching and young as this one. To his horror, however, the older monk walked straight toward the woman and asked her if she needed to cross. The woman shyly said yes, and without another word, he hoisted her piggy-style onto his back and carried the woman across the creek. The younger monk followed them across the creek, stunned. Once on the other side, the woman profusely thanked her new friend, shook his hand, and resumed her journey, disappearing into the trees.
The young man was aghast, but respectful of his elder, he held his tongue. For three hours they walked side by side, all the while the student confused as to how his companion could so flagrantly violate one of the cardinal rules of their temple. The older one had, after all, not only engaged the woman, he had spoken to her, and then not only did he touch her, he carried her on his back! How could such a thing be justified?!
For another hour they walked in total silence, and finally came the point when the young man could stand it no longer. He stepped forward two paces and then whirled on his walking companion to face him in anger. “How could you do that?!” he shouted.
“Do what?” asked the older monk, looking at him.
He rolled his eyes. “It is a sin to touch a woman, a violation to even gaze upon her, and yet you spoke with her. You…you…shook her hand!” He sputtered in his anger. “You carried her across the creek! YOU CARRIED HER!!”
“And you still carry her,” said his older friend, smiling the faintest of smiles and bowing slightly. “I left her back at the river.”
November 2nd, 2006 at 4:14pm
We’ll have to flip a coin to find out who holds the gun and who holds the smoke.
November 3rd, 2006 at 9:50am
Somehow I missed your comment entirely fluffy. I like the parable.