Pumpkin Transcendence
Everyone finds the pumpkin attractive. The kid-in-me loves pumpkins. The pumpkin is a signature of the Fall season, a symbol of cooler days, falling leaves, the turn of Nature toward a season of rest, of quiescence. Who does not need a season of reduced activity, to contemplate, take stock with gratitude, — the good fortune that has brought 
us the support of family, the attention of friends, to have reached this stage in life? So yes, we progress toward the celebration of Halloween for the children and to that great national holiday of Thanksgiving. The pumpkin stands as natures magnificent reminder of just how much we owe to the earth, — to sun and rain and soil. Nature is of the first order, Nature is our mother and everything else is an add-on, an embellishment to this first principle.
So I offer for your appreciation a collection of pumpkins gathered from the field, and offered for purchase at the local Jewel Food store. Some of these will likely be used to fashion a seasonal decoration to grace the front entry of a home, or maybe to delight a child as they work to carve a 2019 model jack-o-lanterm.
The pumpkin is a gourd, varied in size, in spherical shape, typically orange in color, a reminiscent of the suns warmth and light. There is a visual “magic” about the pumpkin that fascinates, and the impulse comes to touch the pumpkin surface, to feel the texture of the skin. The pumpkin is “food-for-thought,” and reflection can open our eyes to something fresh which the imagination may present, something we’ve never before seen of form/shape or color. Also a religious quality attends reflection. One just might be reminded of how extraordinary it is to be alive, and how natural gratitude really is, and how that raw egoism is an unnatural aberration.
I will conclude with some text from wikipedia relating Howard Schultz’ tale of the Great Pumpkin told through the characters of Linus and Charlie Brown.
The photo of the blown glass pumpkins was taken at Epilogue Gallery in Long Grove. Epilogue is worth a drive to Long Grove to enjoy the many types of work in a very warm gallery space.
The Great Pumpkin is a holiday figure in whom only Linus van Pelt believes. According to Linus, the Great Pumpkin flies around bringing toys to sincere and believing children on Halloween evening. Every year, Linus sits in a pumpkin patch (a place Linus believes is the most sincere and lacking in hypocrisy) on Halloween night waiting for the Great Pumpkin to appear. Invariably, the Great Pumpkin fails to turn up, but a humiliated yet undefeated Linus stubbornly vows to wait for him again the following Halloween. Linus acknowledges the similarities between the Great Pumpkin and Santa Claus, the existence of which Linus considers to be ambiguous (in the television special, Linus tells Charlie Brown he’ll stop believing in the Great Pumpkin when Charlie Brown stops believing in Santa Claus, while writing to the Great Pumpkin that Santa Claus has better publicity). Charlie Brown attributes Linus’s belief in the Great Pumpkin to “denominational differences”. Linus is faithful to the belief of the Great Pumpkin, even creating a Great Pumpkin magazine at one point.
