Trick or Treat as a Metaphor for Life

I believe our early child hood experiences with Trick or Treating can be seen as a vivid

comparison to our adult day to day living.  We can become so engrossed in the accumulating process that we miss the delight in being here right now.  I am sure there is a thrill felt in running from house to house collecting ever more candy.  And the strategy of which neighborhood to ring and how late to go and how many houses we can visit as the evening draws to a close. 

It is with a sympathetic smile and chuckle that I recall one of my sons in his younger days racing from house to house with a pillow case, hoping to fill it before the night was done; only to find but a half dozen pieces of candy at the bottom of his sack.  Later he realized his pillow case had a hole that spilled his treasures as he ran. 

The years have passed and neither I nor my sons go out Trick or Treating on Halloween.  And I now wonder if we have gained any more wisdom from those earlier experiences.  Do we still revel in the thrill of accumulating?  Do we still collect and store candy in our sock drawer?  Or have we decided that we have ENOUGH. 

With a wiser understanding of what is GRATITUDE and what is GREED; I would like to think that if I went Trick or Treating, I would go without a bag.  I would ring the doorbell and holler “Trick-er-Treat” with glee and hold out my hand for a treat.  Then I would go to the curb and sit down and enjoy the treat.  Hopefully after four or five more houses, I would go home and say “Boy, was that a lot of fun. And those people sure were generous and kind.” And if I was a really great dad, I would go with my sons and show by example how to cherish the experience rather than how to "get more".

Now I know that sounds pretty ridiculous and even stupid to some.  Yet our daily human experience is predicated on what we believe the world is like.  Abundance or scarcity.  Enough or lack.  And we continue to act out on those very beliefs.  We can be tricked into believing that we need to run faster, do more, and get more. 

But the treat is Life.  Right here, right now.  And oh what a treat it is.

Forty years ago, I sang in a men’s choir and we would open our performances with this song.  And now the lyrics keep coming back to me, reminding me of real gift of life which is life itself.

Look to this day:For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence.
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendor of achievement
Are but experiences of time. 

For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision;
And today well-lived, makes
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day;
Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn