There’s something mysterious about this time of year that brings out more than nostalgia. Halloween’s naughtiness license (to do mischief like moving the neighbors’ swing set from their backyard and putting it in the middle of the driveway) is really a creativity license.
I always looked forward to making the funniest Jack o’ Lantern, or the scariest. And wearing a pink taffeta princess dress (which unfortunately was not visible under all my outer layers on cold Halloweens). And parties (did anyone ever actually catch an apple by bobbing for apples?).
One year at school, the big kids made a Tunnel of Horrors for the younger ones. I was new to that school, and holding on to others as I stumbled up and down stairs in the dark, I had no idea where I was. It was spooky in a fun way — scary faces lit from below by flashlights, ghostlike figures brushing by, skeletons dropping down, haunted wailing, sudden swaths of spider webs … and a witchy voice croaking, “Come closer, Dearie, put your hand in the bowl of eyeballs” (meticulously peeled grapes in water)!
Imagine the creative brainstorming sessions that went into choosing gags that could be pulled off in darkness without breaking anyone’s bones! I was in rapture. I went home that weekend and created a mini version of a Tunnel of Horrors for my younger siblings.
Great job on the pumpkin! I tried one year with one of those Duane Reade carver kits and it was a disaster.
It is a neighbor’s clever creation. Not mine, alas. Hope to try it sometime.
I agree that there is often a link between mischief — which some might call being “bad” — and creativity. Sometimes it can be liberating to give oneself — and/or one’s students — permission to make some “bad” art or do a “bad” drawing or write a “bad” song… The pressure to do it “right” is removed and spontaneity can re-appear on the scene!
Yes. I was helping an adult with English today, and she was so-o self-conscious about making mistakes. I tried to convince her to just keep going and not worry so much about being wrong. She knows more than she thinks she knows.