Robert Taylor placed his hopeful pumpkin on his front porch – gleaming orange with angles Nature had sewn together perfectly.
Everyone in town (pop.189) displayed their pumpkin, hoping to win the town’s Best Pumpkin award.
“I would trade my shiniest trophies for Best Pumpkin,” stated Billy Klinger, the local high school four-time state wrestling champion. His trophies were spit-shine.
As Halloween neared, tempers ran hot – same as every year.
Why? you ask. That is indeed the question.
“Taxes,” said the General Store owner, cursing the state government.
“Long days,” contended teachers and students in a rare alliance.
“Too much Tom-foolery,” the Police Department announced in a formal press release. No one in town read press releases, but a reporter from sprawling Martin City up north might pick up the story and then, who knows, write a profile on the Chief. That would be mighty fine, he thought, mighty fine.
They were all wrong.
In such cases, it can be best to ask a child with a clear perspective of the world around them. Adults are too set in their ways, too prejudiced – and that description is too kind.
So, the question was posed to 8-year-old Kimmy Lee, who answered far more quickly than people expected.
“Oh, that’s easy,” she said. “Tempers flare this time of year because of pride,” she stated precociously.
Adults hushed under sin’s longest shadow.
“Pride means enmity – it is enmity, not only towards your neighbors but also enmity to God.”
She and two friends made a large circle with their shoes and added circles within – a pocked moon.
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Good to see a Ben post 🙏
Emnity—yes—this time of year every 4 years 🙄
Welcome back(ish)!
I don't trust any 8 year olds who use the word enmity three times in a sentence. Precocious? More like pre-demon!