Halloween isn’t, that is. For all that, I’m pretty sure I enjoyed it as a kid, if only for the candy; but when the candy lost its charm (I have a sweet tooth, but for pastries), so did the holiday, for it’s a rather exhausting process. In recent years, I’ve discovered that it’s all the more so for parents. This year was easier; living someplace where we actually get trick-or-treaters, and with our daughters going around together with their friend from the neighborhood and her mother as well as their own, I got to sit on the front porch, read Dorothy Sayers, and hand out candy.Now, to a lot of folks, the idea that that might be preferable to going around extorting candy from neighbors probably sounds strange; those folks are, with (possibly) a few exceptions, extroverts. To extroverts, who are the loud majority of the human race, they are normal, and those of us who are introverts are “moody loners” who should be treated with some care because “some of them are serial killers.” My thanks for that phrasing goes to New Reflections Counseling, Inc., of western Ohio, for their “Introvert’s Lexicon,” which they describe as “a humorous look at the world from an Introvert’s point of view”; if you’re an extrovert and there’s an introvert in your life, I suggest you read it (and the material which follows it on that page), as it could be helpful to you. (If you want further information, you might also check out Jonathan Rauch’s 2003 piece in The Atlantic titled “Caring for Your Introvert,” as well as the sidebar materials.)HT: cranekid
Doug’s evening of blah blah blah:
Actually, as far as my reading on the topic goes, extroverts are the majority in our culture (about 75%), but in China, for example, or Japan, introverts are the 75% majority, give or take. I think its true that our culture rewards extroverted behavior – but those same extroverts dropped into (traditional) Chinese or Japanese society are boorish loudmouths.
So, you and I, rather than being a troubled minority, were just born in the wrong country.
🙂
That makes sense to me.
I’m an introvert and I do great at Halloween. I’m also very creative, and I enjoy coming up with a costume idea every year even as an adult. (One year there was a costume contest at work and I won. But I dress up every year whether there’s a contest or not.)
Of course I don’t go around asking for candy – I just walk with my son as he goes (and wait at the bottom of the steps while he goes to the door). But even when I was a kid I had no trouble doing the trick-or-treating, because the adults expected us to come and welcomed us in (back then we could go into people’s homes), and anyway with a costume on I feel like I have my own private space I’m taking with me.
Going to a Halloween party, though – that would be tough for me as an introvert. Too many people, too much noise.
Interesting. I guess I just never felt that way about costumes (not that I remember, anyway). It’s a good point, though, that when I was younger I did enjoy the costumes; it’s only more recently that that’s changed.
And yeah, the mass kids’ Halloween party thing is definitely a big part of the energy drain.