Fall is such a beautiful season. I love the essence it brings. The smells, the food, the CANDY, it is all just so great.

My favorite part about it all is the colorful trees. They are so intriguing and fun to look at. I could stand around and stare at a single yellow, magenta, orange tree for hours. Well, maybe that is an exaggeration, but the point is the trees are really pretty.

The energy of the people is so strange around this time of year, everyone is probably just really hyped up because Halloween is the best holiday ever...I think I have talked about this before...but I would like to just reiterate the fact. Seriously though, people really do act funny around this time of year. There is no denying that.

I really don't know what is up with the weather. It is up and down all the time. I love the days when it is crisp outside but you can position yourself just right in the sun and have it just warmly gleam down on you. That is a good feeling.

But you know what is even better? Eating candy while sitting in warm glow of the sun, but not having to sweat because it isn't extremely hot outside like summer. Honestly, what more can you ask for? You get free candy, perfect temperatures (on some days), and beautiful scenery. After thinking all of this through, I am going to have to conclude that fall is by far the best season.

Happy Halloween!

I thank everyone who is making use of our Drop Box for worn, faded, and torn flags at the Trenton VFW Post Home.

Since May 30, 2004 we retired 324 American flags ranging in size from 3'x5' to 5'x9', 42 small American flags ranging in size from 4"x6" to 8"x11", 5 POW flags, three Marine Corp flags, five Illinois State flags, one Confederate flag, and one Church banner.

I am very happy to see the public make use of the Box and hope you will continue to do so. The Trenton VFW Post 7983 and its Ladies Auxiliary are happy to provide this service to our community.

Juliana Timmermann
Flag Retirement
Chairman
Trenton VFW Post
7983 Ladies Auxiliary

I have found that life as a cynic is much more tolerable than as a cockeyed optimist.

A friend of mine put it in words more succinct and lucid than I can manage: Everything is friggin' crap, he told me, although in words slightly more graphic. You might as well be a fly.

Accept it, in other words. You can't do anything about it anyway.

It's a philosophy that dovetails with another favorite of mine, that everyone in the world is a big fat liar. And it was the advice I needed at the time, because I was pretty consumed with the frustration that comes from trying to apply reason to the events of day-to-day living.

It's a sad truth that those who fight the system usually go slowly insane. When you see things really happening that contradict all that seems logical and sensible, and you're powerless to stop it, the spiral has begun. The only way to pull yourself out of the vortex is to go limp. Stop caring.

Even there, caution is recommended. I mean, you're not allowed to curl up in a little ball and pull the covers over your head all day. The secret is to stop caring about anything that's beyond your little sphere of influence, and to care fiercely about what' in it. If you think you can do something to break the chokehold the two-party system has over public policy and discourse, forget it. Figure out a way to play the system instead. Get yours.

The truly infuriating part of it is that it's exactly what our leaders want from us, a benign indifference to their rapacious behavior. The entertaining sideshow of politics is as close as they want us to the inner workings of government. If reality television is for the truly dumb segment of society, then television "news" is for those who want (wrongly) to believe they are not.

Since receiving the "be a fly" advice from my friend, I've pretty much put my head down and concentrated on what's right around me. Time has slipped by without much notice. The anesthetized life is less stressful, but pretty joyless.

So it came as something of an awakening to me the other day when my daughter asked for advice on subject matter for her upcoming column. She planned to use Halloween as a theme, but could I think of a good angle.

"How about, every day might as well be Halloween, because everyone is pretending to be something they're not?," I said.

"Ummm... I don't think so," she said.

"Why not?," I asked. "Haven't I always told you that everyone in the world's a big fat liar?"

"Yah... Dad... but it's sad. I don't want to think that way."

Sigh. The blissful ignorance of youth, when hope still meant something.

I guess she has a point. As long as you're not caring, you might as well delude yourself into believing that something good may eventually happen to you.

From my perspective, it's better to assume things will go wrong, and when they don't, it's a pleasant surprise. It's possible I should try to be a more inspirational parent, but the most optimistic advice I could muster for my just-turned-eighteen year old daughter was this: You're already on the treadmill. Start walking before you get sucked into the gears.

I feel the occasional guilt pang for imparting my fatalistic philosophy on my children, but my main concern is that I'm not effectively communicating the subtlety of the message.

I'm not trying to remove all joylessness from their lives. I only want them to be prepared to take their pleasures as they come in their lives, instead of betting on the come. Happiness and sadness are both fleeting, and I hope they'll both spend the bulk of their lives in a sort of bland existence in between.

Besides, one could argue that promoting optimism in our kids is setting them up for even greater disappointment. So you can choose the gumdrops and lollipops mindset if you want, but don't wsay I didn't warn you.