What If Any Day Could Be Halloween?

I have friends who worry about Halloween, and I take their concerns seriously. If onehas a strong sense that there is evil in the world, one usually wants to stay as far away from it–and to keep one’s children as far away from it–as one can.

But the Halloween I see when I look at the kids I have and have had around me is not a frightening thing. In those kids–and, truthfully, in myself–I see a wish to be something different, a wish to try out a new persona, a wish to be a different person from...