Hallowe'en is a time of transformations.
In the ancient Celtic traditions (and the modern Wiccan ones), Samhain is the time at which the Goddess — old, and lonely, and missing her lover — goes to the Summerland to be with him. With her goes light and warmth, fertility, and life. The Samhain Sabbat denotes the end of summer/fall and the beginning of the winter seasons, a time when the last harvest has come in and when the herds are pared down to what the community can feed through the winter, and what will be able to reproduce in the spring.
It is a time of plenty, preceding a known time of famine.
It is also the start of the new year.
Some animals are herded through flickering, protective flames to keep them warm through the winter; others are slaughtered, their meat eaten or preserved, and their hides tanned into skins for shelter or warm winter furs. People, too, pass through the protective fires. Nomadic peoples may say their final goodbyes to their weak, their elderly, those who cannot make the long journey to their winter camp. They will travel, as best as they can, to ancestral grounds where they will live out their last days and become, in time, food for the animals that feed their tribes, and the plants that feed and shelter them.
It is a time for ghosts and spirits, pensive thoughts and fond memories.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the stories of parents whose children have diabetes. Today's feasts of candy transform into fears of DKA; ghost stories have the words "blue candle" written all over their retellings. Too often, it is the bereaved parents whose stories we hear, horror stories of DWL fatalities and "dead-in-bed" teenagers.
It is also the time of year when expenditures rise: in addition to Trick-or-Treat goodies, there are replacement school supplies, winter clothes, Thanksgiving feasts, and Christmas presents. For a family dealing with a new diagnosis, they will have run out of FSA or HRA funds, and are finding themselves scrambling to pay out-of-pocket for the precious insulin, syringes, and test strips that will keep their loved ones alive. The increasingly-cold weather exacerbates peripheral neuropathy issues and lowers the body's resistance to common pathogens such as rhinoviruses, streptococcus bacteria, and influenza, increasing the frequency of doctor visits and trips to the pharmacy.
Along with our fingers, our world turns blue as we approach November, and World Diabetes Day.
Our children, however, are influenced by their peers. Talk of costumes and parties, and planning Trick-or-Treat routes to maximize their sugary hauls.
Parents of children with diabetes have a number of ways of transforming even this into a celebration.
Some parents — like mine (and I didn't have diabetes!) — limit their children's daily consumption of candy. We could have one or two small pieces each day, until either the candies grew stale, or we disliked what remained, or — rarely — we had eaten everything we had collected. Other diabetes families triage the stash, separating out those candies that could be useful in treating low blood glucose and adding them to the "low bowl" before sorting and separating what their children may have now, later, or not at all. Still other parents teach their children what my mother sarcastically calls "high finance" — the exchange of very small amounts of money — and barter for some or all of the child's stash.
In these manners, parents are better able to manage their children's diets and diabetes.
There is yet another way in which Hallowe'en is being transformed.
As Trick-or-Treating becomes more dangerous in high-traffic suburban areas, higher-crime areas, and after dark — and the prevalence of working parents and single-parent households has made for fewer Hallowe'en parties — many large shopping malls have instituted their own Trick-or-Treat days: the Saturday before Hallowe'en, costumed children (accompanied by their potential-shopper parents) are invited to go from store to store, picking up goodies and perhaps taking part in an activity or two. The "in-situ" candy-begging process has also been picked up by churches and other community organizations, inviting parents to decorate their cars and pass out candy in an activity that has become known as "Trunk or Treat".
Both enclosed Trick-or-Treating and Trunk or Treat have again been picked up and transformed for the "greater good", by no less an organization than the American Diabetes Association. Our local Step Out Walk takes place the Saturday before Hallowe'en, at the local minor-league ballpark, with volunteers decorating and manning tents, or "providing healthy snacks" at their "Trunk or Treat" stations. Walkers are encouraged to dress in costume, adding to the Hallowe'en spirit.
And thereby hangs the tale by which Hallowe'en was transformed into a celebration of people with diabetes (Red Striders), rather than one to be feared by parents of children with diabetes.
