Halloween

I lived overseas too long to enjoy Halloween - seen too many real haunted houses to laugh at the imitations; witnessed the effects of a real witch's curse too many times to consider the plastic version cute; met too many victims of ghosts to enjoy Casper; and heard too many descriptions of death too smile when I pass my neighbor's yard.  I developed this position because I respected the Kyrgyz whom I lived among, valued their stories, and entered their world...  Now I'm jaded.

I guess I didn't have to enter the Kyrgyz world.  I could have position myself within the detached ethnocentric and imperialistic world of the nation's historic overlords.

Whatever.  I've lived in two worlds.  The Kydyr covers us, not fear.