Oomph. That was a doozy, and I’m paying for it. Been laid out for a few days with some virus that’s making it impossible for me to do much without wanting to sleep. I don’t have a fever and don’t have a cough, but I am down for the count. I think much of the world would laugh this off as some sort of strange “man-cold,” but whatever it is, the only remedy so far is Netflix.
Spooky Origins
The cause of my illness? Halloween. I worked my tail off for it, hauling stuff up from the basement and setting stuff up for our annual haunted house. What started off as a “scary tent” in our front yard nine years ago has blossomed into a full-out scare-fest, with a backyard trail and a maze through our garage. It’s a blast—a tradition handed down to us from some neighborhood girls who used to babysit our kids before they went off to college. Now it’s our turn, and we have embraced the experience wholeheartedly. But for the second year in a row, I’ve gotten a cold from all the hoopla.
My wife wonders how it’s possible that I can go climb up and down mountains for an endless amount of time and never even seem tired, but the Halloween process gets me ill each year, despite my love of it. It doesn’t make sense. Except, I think I’m zeroing in on the source: the spooky room in the basement where I keep all of the Halloween stuff. I mean, it harbors ghouls, monsters, and skeletons—why not a little home-cooked plague as well?
Just look at that room—of course the plague is lingering down there.
Worth the Effort
But whatever the cause, the effort was worth it. Our older kids and their friends have made some great memories scaring the community, and everyone who comes through seems to really enjoy it. Each year we get parents and kids alike thanking us for the thrill. This year, one of our scarers did a pitch counter on the number of people going through, and he got 2,226 before I saw another forty or so go in. And this was a quiet year. All of the haunted house participants are quite certain that the previous year we easily got over 3,000 visitors. Just wild to even think about.
2,226 visitors, and this was a light year!
No vs. Yes
I don’t know how many of these I’ve got left in me, especially if it’s going to get me sick each year. But it’s been a heck of a run. And the effort has been totally worth it. Like climbing a mountain to gain a new perspective of the earth below, putting on a haunted house lets us see Halloween from a different angle. We get to hear people voice their appreciation, their fears, and their joy. We get a chance to be creative and construct something enticing, without being too, too terrifying. Just a little scary will do. It’s given all of us a great tradition—one that we never imagined ourselves ever doing—because someone handed us the baton and we actually grabbed it.
I’m not saying that if someone who has been running a haunted house for years, taps you on the shoulder and says, “you’re it,” you have to be the next family in line to run one. But this has got me thinking: as we get older, it gets harder and harder to say yes to the things we never considered before. Things we “don’t get,” or think “weird.” I certainly say “no” to a bunch of stuff, but it’s not because I don’t want to be out of my comfort zone—I’m simply trying to conserve my energy for the things I want to do for my people when it matters. I admit, I can get damn tired keeping up with the needs and wants of the world, and I often need to recharge the battery to do so. To that end, “no” can be a handy word.
It’s hard to say “no” to these guys.
Saying Yes to Yes
But so can “yes.” “Yes,” creates new memories and experiences that awaken parts of the brain that have lain dormant for far too long. I look for new experiences to not only give me new ideas for my writing, but to keep my mind limber. To give me something to look forward to and fill my life with color. Some of these experiences are a monumental effort, like putting on a haunted house, and some are just calling up a friend you haven’t spoken to in years or finding a new place to hike. Just a little something out of the ordinary to change our perspective, create a story, and help the daily routine have a little more life.
It might be hard work, it might put you out of your comfort zone, but it shakes off the dust of the tried and true. And who knows what it’ll make you feel—but it’ll probably make you feel something. It might give you a laugh. It might make you sick. But if you’re lucky, it might make you feel like the kid who went through our haunted house and said to his dad, “That was awesome. I can’t believe they don’t make us sign a waiver!”
It’s worth it.