Today is the day we have a little fun with the supernatural. No, I don't mean whipping out a Ouija board and playing with things you don't understand, I mean dressing up like ghosts, goblins, witches, demons, zombies (huge this year for some reason), or your favorite celebrities or cartoon characters.
But no matter what you're doing this Halloween, be it trick or treating, partying in disguise, or getting ready for the NYC Marathon [nice hand from the audience here], I suggest you be careful of the vampires.
Oh yeah, vampires are real. Not necessarily the old-school Bela Lugosi types, always seducing terrified young ladies with their suave Eastern European ways, and then trapping them in the world of the undead. Not necessarily the Lost Boys or Twilight types either -- as neat as it really would be to stay 16 years old forever, the inability to see your reflection, the need to always invade blood drives, and the never-ending teen angst is a little much to bear for a century. Not even the cool biker vampires in the "Blade" movies. No, I mean the vampires that drain you of more than blood.
These vampires drain you of other precious resources. These include, but are not limited to, your happiness, your peace of mind, your self-respect, your patience, your self-esteem, your hopes, and your dreams. Without these, you are truly walking among the undead, just keeping up appearances, going through the motions, pretending to be alive when you're not.
Without describing the multitude of forms these vampires take, chances are you've encountered them before, or they may still be feeding off of you. You don't need garlic, religious items, or even a blast of noonday sunlight to get rid of them. All you need is the modicum of courage needed to say "no." And the extra courage needed to tell them to stay away. Doing that is even scarier than the prospect of stabbing a vampire through the heart, because we never want to be seen as evil ourselves. But there's nothing evil about it.
And so, friends and neighbors, this one night a year, you can embrace all forms of the supernatural from a fun perspective. But starting tomorrow, stop allowing these vampires to feast on you.
I EXIST. I MATTER. I BELONG. I DESERVE.
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