Now Some Good Stuff

And now for the good news:

1. Friday night I did a bourgeois thing and went to see Margaret Cho. I laughed so hard I was sore the next morning. The woman still has it, and she was unafraid to share it.

2. Saturday night I had a nice, long chat with my West Coast friend James. We made preliminary plans to attend Burning Man 2012. This gives me something to plan for.

3. Sunday was a nice, quiet Samhain at home with Manuel. I made colcannon, which is excellent.

4. Speaking of Sunday, The Walking Dead premiered Sunday night, and it was really, really good. Intense.

5. On Monday I traded in a bag full of books at a used bookstore, and got a ton of store credit. I'm encouraged to take more—my library is going to go through a shift in focus over the next several months.

6. Speaking of books, on Monday I picked up the new novel The Instructions by Adam Levin. So far it is really, really good—and at 1030 pages, it had better be.

7. Yesterday Mom got through her third surgery of 2010 just fine, and I had a fun, brief chat with her while she was high on morphine yesterday evening.

Why Would an Agnostic Celebrate Samhain?

It's no secret, as far as this blog is concerned, that my religious history is very complicated. Here, in words and phrases, is a recap: Fundamentalist Christian, Liberal Christian, Neo-Pagan, Buddhist, Neo-Pagan, Santerían, flirter with Islam, Agnostic.

I don't know whether or not the ancestors/dead flitter around me day-to-day, or not. I. Do. Not. Know. That is the Agnostic 'mantra' right there. To my mind, the mysteries I observed among Christians, Santeríans, Neo-Pagans and Buddhists were simply mental states and brain-avenues not usually found in day-to-day living. Including, but not limited to, access to one's ancestors/dead (or what their meaning/influence is for one).

Honoring one's ancestors and dearly departed means honoring thoses aspects of one's own psyche. Tomorrow I will celebrate an actual holiday for just that: honoring parts of myself that have come and gone before (hell, even my past relationships are fodder for this celebration).

Happy Halloween/Samhain, and All Saints and All Souls, my friends. Enjoy the decline and resurrection of the solar and agricultural years. Your dead sit within you, desiring recognition and honor. My suggestion: give it to them, and live.