In the midst of the
intensification of the very polarized and thus divisive U.S. presidential
campaign “season” (i.e., year) during its last week, Halloween of 2024 occurred
in Boston, Massachusetts not only without the need of trick-or-treaters and
their parents to wear winter coats, but also with the option of wearing
shorts and short-sleeve shirts without even having to wear a light jacket. That
this was so as late as 8pm was nothing short of surreal not only to New
Englanders, but also to any transplants from the northern-tier Midwestern and
Plains states. It being around 70F
degrees well into the dark hours was nothing short of unprecedented, and so
much so that the negative impact of the cold climate in detracting from the holiday
in prior years could finally be grasped. I had realized this more than a decade
earlier when I was in Miami during Halloween. There is indeed a silver lining
to global warming for people living in places that are cold during the late
fall, winter, and early spring seasons, even as contrary to political
correctness it is to admit this even to friends. The proclivity of the human
mind/brain to divide up the world in terms of dichotomies of mutually-exclusive,
antagonistic poles does not necessarily fit with empirically with the real world.
Taoism speaks to this.
The full essay is at "Climate Change on Halloween."
