Jack-o-lanterns are showcasing their toothy grins. Ghouls, ghosts and goblins have begun popping up everywhere. Frightful fiends are starting to take over our televisions, department stores and yards.

Halloween is almost here.

I love the spooky season and enjoy scary movies as much as the next person, but the things that invoke fear in me have certainly changed with age. It isn’t the boogeyman that keeps me awake at night.

The real culprits can be found dominating newspaper and television headlines across the country and can realistically be divided into two primary categories: crazy people and things we cannot see.

You don’t have to look far to find those “crazy people,” and I mean no disrespect to individuals battling mental illnesses or working to overcome those challenges. No, I mean people who take guns to universities or the workplace, murder young women, kidnap children or any of the other things that some depraved human beings perpetrate on others.

I don’t know what other term to use and if this doesn’t constitute crazy then I don’t know what does.

The Ebola virus is a great example of scary things we cannot see. It has been in the news a lot lately. The first person in the United States diagnosed with it died earlier this week. The outbreak that began this year has taken more lives than all previous incarnations combined over the past 30 or so years.

That’s truly scary.

You can’t see it. You can’t fight it. And you may not know until it’s too late.

Ebola has killed almost 3,500 people in Africa, according to the World Health Organization says. Making it even more frightening is that there are no proven treatments or vaccines, although several experimental drugs are being tested.

Ebola has a fatality rate of more than 60 percent, often much higher in under developed countries.

Horror movie icons like “Halloween’s” Michael Myers and “A Nightmare on Elm Street’s” Freddy Krueger may have made millions of dollars on the big screen and terrified entire generations but invisible killers like this are what truly scare me.

This doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate Halloween. In fact, in some ways it means I can enjoy the holiday even more.

The truly scary things in life provide a sometimes-needed perspective and take some of the edge off of those that are just meant to be fun.

 

Michael Caldwell is the publisher of Leader Publications LLC. He can be reached at (269) 687-7700 or by email at mike.caldwell@leaderpub.com.