Spent a delightful late Thursday walking a neighborhood with grandchildren and parents.  Sure it was a brisk, snowy day, unusual for late fall, — but no matter.  On both sides of the street costumed kids happily approached the front door of house after house to say the customary incantation: Trick or Treat.  The reward, a piece of candy, and in some cases a full sized Hersey chocolate bar.

Halloween is a tradition that involves people of all ages.  Homeowners are delighted to see the variety of creative costumed children at their door, excited and hopeful.  Does life get any better than this?  Halloween is one of the high points of the year if you are in a position to participate.

For this Halloween Nature unaccountably chose to wear the mask of winter.  There was enough early snowfall to paint the still brilliant maple leaves with white.  Plastic yard flamingos stood impassively as they always do, but covered in a white blanket.

Halloween is a spectacle, a spectacle of pure fun and sociability.  Who doesn’t enjoy running around the neighborhood in a carnival like atmosphere?

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In the back of my mind, pushed out of the way for the time being was the awareness of the impeachment proceedings taking place in Washington.  Our elected representatives are at odds, polarized over whether the President’s behavior merits his removal from office.  This is an unfolding spectacle, the stuff of a nightmare that proceeds with growing intensity day by day.

Is it a high crime and dismeanor to blackmail a foreign power to bring suite against one’s political opponent?

Far from displaying allegiance to reason, to the process of a trial that allows the measured presentation of evidence in order to permit each member to register his best judgment — there is much shouting, acrimonious finger pointing among members of the House of Representatives.  The President, true to his showman nature, weighs in on twitter, multiple times a day, broadcasting his bitterness.

All of this has the hallmark of a very dark carnival.

Poets and lyricists superbly capture our human predicament.  I offer Emerson, Lake, and Palmer

KARNEVIL 9 1^ST IMPRESSION PART 2

Written by Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, and Peter Sinfield

Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends
We’re so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside
There behind a glass stands a real blade of grass
Be careful as you pass. Move along, move along

Come inside, the show’s about to start!
Guaranteed to blow your head apart
Rest assured you’ll get your money’s worth
Greatest show in Heaven, Hell or Earth!
You’ve got to see the show. It’s a dynamo!
You’ve got to see the show. It’s rock and roll! Oh

Right before your eyes we pull laughter from the skies
And he laughs until he cries, then he dies, then he dies

Come inside, the show’s about to start
Guaranteed to blow your head apart!
You’ve got to see the show. It’s a dynamo!
You’ve got to see the show. It’s rock and roll! Oh

Soon the Gypsy Queen in a glaze of vaseline
Will perform on guillotine! What a scene, what a scene
Next upon the stand will you please extend a hand
To Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Dixieland, Dixieland!

Roll up, roll up, roll up!
See the show!

Performing on a stool we’ve a sight to make you drool
Seven virgins and a mule! Keep it cool, keep it cool
We would like it to be known the exhibits that were shown
Were exclusively our own. All our own, all our own

Come and see the show! Come and see the show!
Come and see the show!
See the show!