Will Your Halloween Be More Tricks Than Treats?
by
Terrence Shulman
September is gone and October arrives. As of the end of September, The U.S. has is closing in on 44 million confirmed Covid cases and we’ve had over 700,000 deaths since early 2020. I (and millions of other Americans and others worldwide) did celebrate Halloween last October 2020–before vaccines were even on the scene, a healthy vibe of caution still fills the air as we prepare for trick-or-treat time at month’s end. The vibe is definitely different in some ways. This time last year, we were in the midst of a heated national election season and an even more heated presidential election. To many, our democracy literally hung in the balance.
This year, while the Delta- and Mu-versions of Covid variants have emerged, we are steadily moving towards greater vaccination rates but we still have to be careful. And we are now living in a post-January 6th country with continued deep divisions among Democrats and Republicans, the left and the right, the vaccinated vs. the unvaccinated, and the masked and the mask less.
Perhaps Halloween is the one holiday where nearly everyone will at least be wearing mask of some sort!
And while most of our kids are back in school in-person vs. online this time last year, virtually no children under 16 have been vaccinated.
Hopefully, Halloween doesn’t turn into a “super-spreader” event. We still need to take precautions when and where we can.
We continue to see much trickery in our politics and in our social fabric. Each side points the finger at the other, asserting lies, cheating, and other shenanigans. One side has to be more correct than the other. But we have met the enemy and it is us. A house divided cannot stand. And our poor children are in the middle as usual.
As The Peanuts’ Charlie Brown famously chanted from “The Great Pumpkin” TV classic: “I got a rock!”
Love him or loathe him, Donald Trump continues to be “The Great Pumpkin.” And not just because both are orange. Both are elusive and both captivate the imagination and hypnotize the believer both eventually will make you feel like a fool for believing. Ask those whose loved ones have died from Covid after believing his claim it was a hoax. As one family member said: “my father’s only pre-existing condition was believing Donald Trump.”
Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that Trump is the trickster of all tricksters. Tricksters trick people in various ways and they’re very good at it. In just the last month several books have been published which further expose him for who he is. Bob Woodward’s (and Robert Costa’s third and most recent “Trump” book “Peril” further reveals the tricker of Trump. And it appears over the last year that he has seduced his party as well.
Trump continues to be a master snake-oil salesman and uses people for his own benefit and discards them when they’re no longer useful. The trickster doesn’t play by the rules. And Trump appears to be a master of breaking the rules on many fronts. The G.O.P. is in lockstep as voting rights and reproductive rights are threatened a new.
So, while we may take some solace in the coming holiday season, football, baseball playoffs, the start of the NBA and NHL, and the fall colors, darkness is looming and we can’t let Lucy keep snapping the ball away from Charlie Brown. We need to follow Snoopy’s lead as he’s the most normal, wise character of The Peanuts. We deserve to have treats not tricks and candy (in moderation) instead of rocks . And,certainly our kids (who are our future) do, too!
Speaking of Tricksters…
Addiction is A Trickster!
And Here’s a Poem About This
Written by a former client and shoplifter, Dee, ten years ago. Dee recently passed away last month….
Mr. Addiction
I had an unwanted visitor today while I was shopping for groceries.
I came around the corner with my shopping cart and saw him lurking at
the end of the aisle, mostly hidden by the tall shelves.
I hardly recognized him with his shabby clothes hanging off his emaciated body
and a forlorn expression on his face.
But there he was, my ole buddy–Mr. Addiction.
I tried going down a different aisle, but there he was again.
I couldn’t seem to escape him.
When he saw me heading for the check-out, he got emboldened and confronted me.
I told him to get out of my way but he just stood his ground.
I just scooted around him, paid for my groceries, and headed for my car.
But he followed right behind me…and he was pissed, really really pissed.
“Hey you – Dee! You got some ‘splaining’ to do!” he shouted.
“Are you talking to me?” I asked, wishing with all my heart I really did NOT know this dude.
“Who else would I be talking to?
Don’t pretend you don’t know me.
I remember when you needed me.
We were best buddies.
You depended on me.
I got you nice gifts, I treated you well, I took care of you.
And this is how you treat me now?”
“How am I treating you now?” I asked.
“You ignore me.
You aren’t feeding me, anymore.
You have shut me out of your life.
Heck, you even changed the locks on the door to your heart and my key doesn’t fit anymore.
What gives?
It’s as if you think you are better than me,” he said, his anger rising with every sentence.
Oh how I wanted to just ignore him but he wouldn’t leave.
So I turned and said, “Well, Mr. A, let’s start at the top.
I’m not feeding you anymore because your hunger is insatiable.
The more I fed you the more you demanded, and satisfying you became a full time job, on top of my full
time job.
It was exhausting.
Yes, you showered me with gifts – lots of gifts and you always smiled and told me they were ‘free’ and that
the supply was unlimited.
Ha! Like hell they were free!
Those ‘free gifts’ cost me my peace of mind, my self-respect, they almost cost me my freedom.
You pretended what we were doing was safe and I was stupid enough to believe you, that we were so
smart we would never get caught.
Oh and when the game was over I notice you vanished from sight leaving me’ holding the bag’ while you ducked out the back door and I took the heat – and paid mightily.”
“We used to be such a great team. I miss you,” he said, casting those big brown Puppy-Dog eyes my way.
“Mr. A, I don’t miss you.
Take your ‘free gifts’ offer to someone else, I’m no longer buying what you’re selling.”
“Don’t you love me anymore?” he cried.
“As a matter of fact, no.
I love myself more.
I love my CASA family more, and I’m not going to let myself down because when I do I’d let them down,
too.
We’re a team — we’re stronger than you.”
I got in my car and drove home, leaving him crying in the parking lot.
But as I turned the corner, he had already dried his eyes and was approaching an unsuspecting shopper
heading into the store…following
right behind.
Stay safe and be well.
Yours in recovery,
Dee, FL 🙂 2013
C.A.S.A.
(Cleptomaniacs And Shoplifters Anonymous)
Celebrated 29th Anniversary Last Month
I’m proud to announce the recent 29-year anniversary of the C.A.S.A. (Cleptomaniacs And Shoplifters Anonymous) self-help group and the 21-year anniversary of the CASA-online self-help group (started in 2000 but reformatted in 2003). Our metro-Detroit area group, which I founded in 1992, appears to be the oldest ongoing self-help group of its kind. C.A.S.A. has four metro-Detroit area chapters which have meet weekly by phone since March 2020 due to Covid., We also have had about 15-20 other C.A.S.A. groups throughout the U.S. We have a ways to go before we have self-help groups in every state, let alone every major city, but we continue to hold the vision for this. If you are interested in either starting a local meeting chapter or contributing in some way to assisting this process, we invite you to read the books Something for Nothing: Shoplifting Addiction and Recovery and Biting The Hand That Feeds: The Employee Theft Epidemic… New Perspectives, New Solutions. Please contact us by e-mail or phone. Email terrenceshulman@theshulmancenter.com for information about self-help group meetings.
HAVE A SAFE MONTH AND REMEMBER: LIFE IS WHAT WE MAKE OF IT!