I've recently provided my blog about a visiting friend from California. Now I'll see if I can't tie this story together with my last one. Is that weird? I have the same problem as most people do in Salonville; I can't make my mind stop working.
Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Wait a minute.
The word "Halloween," actually began in the Catholic Church. By the way, where did Catholics begin? It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" - or "All Saints Day", is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. Let's go back a bit further than even Jesus or some vacation that we call Christmas.
From the 5th century BC, Celtic "Ireland", began a new year on November 1st. The so-called holiday was called Samhain (pronounced sow-en). I have read one story that exists about the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year and who have come back in search of living bodies to possess for whatever reason. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living. Do any of we religious "embellished" people believe in this sort of idea anymore?
I came along in life a little bit after the B.C. epoch. Here is my paltry "Halloween" story.
I grew up as a member of a somewhat famous Methodist Church. The keiki (children) had a very special place in the rather large basement of that church. The kids built most of it in order to primarily exclude the attending of Sunday meetings - or sort of. We had a very special person that built a lot of the recording station downstairs - right amongst the pool tables, the coke machine and the duo-sex (or perhaps unisex termed) sleep along "parties". Do these occasions still happen in modern churches? We always had some nice visitors; The Beach Boys or Reggae famous Bob Marley. They and a lot of others were there too. I met them all. Maybe that's why I first picked up a guitar. Coming up, I met someone else there too.
She was a medical doctor - women M.D's were somewhat relatively rare employment in those days - but she did work in Africa occasionally. She brought to us some horrible medical-example films of people who she was treating in other countries. Can you frighten children any more effectively? (Probably not on any well-known vacations.) We had all met together prior to a Halloween occasion. The doctor suggested that we brought cans or miniature milk cartons. She gave us all an emblem sticker that enclosed our hand pieces. What we were looking or begging for were pennies or nickels in those days. Instead of any candy, we just collected the pennies which were eventually donated to a place called UNICEF (1946 - United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund). Well, that was that. No candy for us on any Halloween.
I did sort of grow up and went to a college called the University of California at Irvine. I spent a long time graduating that place with two degrees One of them was a pre-med called simply biology). I needed to enroll in what we called 26 quarter units for every quarter during what we might call college for each and every quarter. In order to do that legally I was required to obtain a dean's signature from somewhere.
During a strange year of our history I ended up investigating a brand new thing called the medical school at the UCI. The dean of that school was the same doctor that I had met many years before.
"I think I know you from somewhere. Is your name Richard (something)?"
Then she asked, "Why are you taking this number of credits?"
I replied that "I just work hard.". She said, "Hmmm".
Yep. I've used that phrase quite a bit. Sometimes people think that a person might just be preposterous thinking by including that vocal time-out in any conversation. Perhaps that in itself is an equally laughable thought?
My God. This woman knew me and still knows me. Does any realize how difficult getting into virtually any medical school is with whatever grades you're pulling with? Duh! I was good as enrolled! Does that conversation sound greedy?. Here's the deal for you or preferably your own children: 10% of your own worth is because of how smart or educated that you think or interpret that you are. In my opinion, the best 90% of our lives' experiences are the friends that we will or might know. Your friends know what the best parts of you are and they can help you get some important things that you do feel are important.
Ain't that great? Yep, I still remember this experience. Aid na keiki (the children) for having a wonderful Halloween this Monday. Neither they nor Halloweens last forever....
P.S. Yeah, I still play the guitar and paint a lot of things. I still own a professional pool table - bring your spare cash. I can still pick any lock in about three minutes or wire any electronics that you might dream up. Where in the hell did I pick up all of these ideas?
Welcome To The Club
