As strange as it may seem, my goal in life has always been to bring more good into the world. As they phrase it in Nerdfighteria, helping “to decrease world suck.” There are many ways to do this—give encouraging words to others in a cancer support community, volunteer time (structured or otherwise) to civic organizations, even trying to help make sense of it all through an obscure blog. My motivation in entering teaching as a profession was to help make the world a better place. (Also, I’m pretty good at it.) When that fell through as a profession, I began yet another odd way to try to bring good into the world. Writing books about religion and horror. Please hear me out—this is part of a larger plan which, in the nature of plans, may or may not work out. It involves getting people’s attention for a moment (kind of like teaching).
There are a significant number of people who enjoy horror. The vast majority of them are not bad people. They find something enjoyable, or cathartic, or perhaps even spiritual in consuming horror. I’m one of them. My piece “Exorcising The Pope’s Exorcist” appeared yesterday on Horror Homeroom. (Hey, it’s free—check it out!) Exorcism, as a social/religious phenomenon, owes its popularity to a horror movie. And if the rite brings some measure of relief to someone suffering mentally, spiritually, or physically, it has decreased—you guessed it—world suck. It makes this planet just a little bit better for a little while. Movies that promote exorcism can, believe it or not, help people.
Some time back I was invited to offer a course at the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. I am deeply honored because if you look at the list of names of past (and present) teachers there are some superstars in there. By the way, my course is titled “Believing in Sleepy Hollow.” (Maybe those of you who read daily may now understand why I’ve been posting so much on Sleepy Hollow of late.) Teaching a course that will bring enjoyment to others is a way of bringing a small measure of good into the world. Once you leave secondary education, you’re never obligated to take a course. It’s something we want to do. That means if someone gets something out of my course I’ve brought just a little bit of good into the world. It counts, I hope, toward my life’s amorphous goal.