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MnSF-Metro Region president's column |
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Trick or treat!
“It was a dark and stormy night”...is the phrase with which my memory begins its recollection of an Oct. 31 childhood evening out...terrorizing the neighborhood...reaping treats for not playing tricks. Are you sufficiently “long in the tooth” to remember that if the household visited on Halloween night did not ply you with treats, your revenge was to go out back and tip over the outhouse? (With extra points earned if it was occupied at the time!)
Ever since those “yore” days of youth I have been known to complain that life seems to play too many tricks on me while offering precious few treats. Somehow, riding my witches broom of seniority into some serene sunset seems not on a par with getting swept away by mysteriously exciting ghostly shapes illuminated by wispy cloud-guided moonbeams piercing gnarled oak branch shadows frightening the wits out of this callow youth. On the other hand, perhaps I might better spend this Halloween celebrating the different kinds of excitement that are inherent in each scenario. If I lurk around life expecting to be tricked, I probably will have tricks played on me. On the other hand if I try for tasty treats chances are I’ll be surrounded by the sweet life.
Of late it seems that the Halloween spirit has hit some government operations with a vengeance. We have received far more tricks than treats. And candidates campaigning for places at the public palaces seem to work harder at playing tricks on each other than treating one another, and us, with some modicum of professional dignity. The model of an ancient Greek agora with its forum of civil dialogue about ideas seems to have been replaced with a Roman circus minimus forum filled with devouring lions of demonization.
Rodney Dangerfield complains about “not getting no respect,” while Aretha Franklin sings “R.E.S.P.E.C.T.” with great gusto. Will we let ourselves get tricked out of all civility, merely adding years to our life, or will we find and taste all the treats of possibilities thereby adding life to our years. I have the power to choose whether to be a trick of fate or a treat in life. So then, for this Halloween season, having now achieved some seniority in living, what will it be for you...
Trick or TREAT? |
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