Evan, almost three, and Molly, two, started to get the hang of Halloween this year. They liked dressing up in their costumes (Buzz Lightyear and owl), and they liked running from house to house saying, “Trick or Treat.” But their favorite thing to do was to dump out the candy they’d received, play around with it, and then answer their doorbell and hand out candy to the kids that showed up, candy that they had just been given when they were going door to door. At the end of the evening their plastic pumpkin buckets were almost as empty as when they started.

In honesty, I have to say that they’ve never eaten candy and don’t see it as valuable. If they   had been asked to give away something they wanted, like toy cars or stickers, their attitude may have been different.

I couldn’t help draw a comparison to the writing life. Writers go out into the world and gather nuggets of truth from wherever they can find then. Then they come home, sort through and play with the inspiration they’ve received, and then hand it out to whoever shows up in the bookstore to receive it. Put and take, or rather take and put.

Come to think of it, shouldn’t that be the model for every life? Shouldn’t all of our pumpkins be empty at the end? Shouldn’t we give as much as we get?

Put and take or take and put.