It's All Fun & Games...

Halloween didn’t start out as candy and costumes.

Long before pumpkins, trick-or-treating, and horror movie marathons, this time of year had a much more serious meaning.

People believed the boundary between the living and the dead wasn’t quite as solid as usual. The veil was thin, and what you couldn’t see might still be there.

Costumes weren’t necessarily about having fun.

Sometimes, they were about protection.

Somewhere along the way, though, we turned the whole thing into a game.

Costumes.

Candy.

Haunted houses.

Ouija boards.

Ghost stories told in the dark.

We took the things that frightened and fascinated people for centuries and turned them into something we could play with.

Something we could laugh at.

Something we could control.

And honestly?

I understand why.

Human beings have always been curious about what we don’t understand. We still are.

But there’s a difference between being curious about something and having an experience you can’t explain.

And I’ve learned that difference firsthand.

It really is all fun and games…

until you see your first ghost.

I had my first experience with a Ouija board when I was sixteen. Years later, when my kids were teenagers, I had another.

I’m not going to tell you those experiences prove anything.

They don’t.

I can’t scientifically prove what happened. I can’t hand you evidence, recreate the circumstances, or tell you with absolute certainty what caused it.

And I’m perfectly comfortable saying that.

But I also know what I experienced.

Maybe there was an explanation I didn’t understand.

Maybe there wasn’t.

Either way, it was real enough to change the way I approached things afterward.

Because watching a ghost story is one thing.

Wondering whether ghosts exist is another.

But having something happen that you genuinely cannot explain?

That changes the conversation.

You don’t have to believe every bump in the night is paranormal.

I certainly don’t.

Sometimes a strange noise is the house settling.

Sometimes the cat knocked something over.

And sometimes?

You’re standing there thinking:

Well… that was interesting.

That’s the line I think we forget when we turn the unexplained into entertainment.

Curiosity is fine.

Skepticism is healthy.

And admitting that we simply don’t know everything is perfectly reasonable, too.

So enjoy Halloween.

Eat the candy.

Watch the scary movies.

Tell the ghost stories.

Just remember…

It’s all fun and games until you see your first ghost.