My Darth Vader helmet came in today after 16 days of waiting. That is what $10 in shipping for 3-Day UPS Ground will get you. The only reason the company finally shipped it was because I asked them where my helmet was. The Lord of the Sith is most displeased with their apparent lack of vision.
Despite this minor setback, Holloween remains my favorite holiday. More than Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is the one day a year where people can be an extension of their persona. It is my belief that deep within people’s psyche lies a desire to be these characters most days of the week. Jobs, family, religion, society, et al dictate the need for structural and behavioral order. It makes it easier to interact when you know the rules of the game. Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain around your pastor/priest/minister. Don’t dress like a slob to a professional interview. Don’t greet your family the same way you would greet your college buddies at the bar. If these walls were nonexistant, how would you treat Darth Vader when he came in to renew his license? When he was displeased with how you cooked his eggs? When he was trying to return a sweater, which obviously did not come from this store? These costumes are extensions of our ego. The meek become strong, the insecure become sex symbols, and a transformation occurs. The people are no longer their former selves, but someone they internally desire to be for one day. Why can people not extend these traits from Holloween into their daily lives is a mystery.
What is Darth Vader an extension of? What inner desire is expressed by becoming the most powerful Jedi/Sith who ever lived? Despite pledging himself to darkness, destroying democracy, and liquidating entire races from the galaxy there was still good within him. Love would eventually become his undoing and reclaim him prior to death. His is an unnaturally dark tale of good conquering evil.
As I ask most people nowadays so too I implore unto you. Who will you be for Holloween?