Add to that, Happy Halloween!

And while we’re at it, happy trick or treating!

It used to be that little boys were so easily scared of their own shadows jumping out of a dark corner. How times have changed, because now they want to be the ones doing the scaring, boo! And doing it in style, com-plete with makeup (using mother’s tools), costumes, and props.

If what we saw at two malls last weekend was any indication, the kids just wannabe copies of Harry Potter, Spider-Man, or a K-pop Demon Hunter; they don’t mind starring in their own Star Wars scenarios. They may be dressed like vampires, witches, and warlocks, they may be walking and talking skeletons, what fun!

The most scary house I saw last week was one near a church. Spilling out to the sidewalk and looking like a stage set, its All Saints Day decor was dominated by paper-and-plastic ghosts united by cobwebs (made of yards and yards of cotton, the kind found in a clinic) and big fat candles (unlighted) standing by like a threat to go up in flames.

Speaking of sidewalks, the memorial parks have little space left to expand even as the number of their forev-er-silent customers continues to grow. Sooner or later management will have to put their foot down on re-quests for more and more space, sidewalks included, to bury their dead. When these parks begin to look as crowded as a public cemetery, won’t their customers – the ones who do the paying – mind?

Meanwhile, the gardeners who trim the grass around the tombstones are also looking forward to more and bigger returns. They are not employees of the memorial parks but their own lively business keeps them going all year round, All Saints Day and 364 days besides. I don’t know how they magically turn up five minutes after you’ve arrived; it must be a special talent of sight or smell or both.

But why should people die? In the words of the German Pope Benedict XVI, if people did not die, the compe-tition for resources would be too horrible to contemplate.

On that note you may let your thoughts rest.