October Will Be Fine

Hear me out.

The earth almost dies, every October. Wouldn’t that be weird?

Premise: what if there really was something to the Winter Solstice. To the shortest day of the year. The turning of the world back towards warmth and life.

What if it really was a thing that we had to do something about. Like, spiritually. Ritualistically. What if it was a plunge into the depths, the dark. A leap we had to take with hope and love in our souls and faith in whatever it is anybody believes in. And that plunge—that ritual—takes us to some deep place. And in that deep place are all the life kernels.

Stay with me.

And we have to take a kernel, every year, from that deep place, that place we can only access on the longest night of the year. And we have to bring it back and plant it, and that's what powers the earth. That's what allows it to turn back towards life and day. And that force is what sustains creation for another year.

And that kernel is more than enough to get the world through spring and summer. But then, near September, it begins to tire. It’s going into low power mode. And October comes around, and the world is exhausted. The battery is dying. Enter all Hallow’s Eve. The world is so thin and worn and death gets closer, closer. So the living begin to celebrate it, so that when they see the actual dead among them they’re not so surprised. Not so frightened.

And then winter descends, and life freezes, dark and cold, and people just…wait. From fall harvest—Thanksgiving, stay with me—to Solstice, people are just…waiting. To see if we can make it till the plunge. To see if we can survive the plunge, this year. For next year's life.

Wouldn’t that be weird?