Here's your Halloween challenge

Politically divided.

Generationally divided.

Heck, we’re even gender divided.

Indivisible? What a joke.

Tribes. Camps. Left. Right. Black. White. ToMAto. ToMAHto.

So we ask: Why can’t we be friends?

And we suggest: Let’s do more stuff together.

Part of the inspiration for this Halloween Eve editorial comes from proud local Democrat Del Cameron, who launched an invasion force of one into the midst of the pro-Trump rally in Coeur d’Alene. Cameron’s letter to the editor about the experience, entitled RALLY: A view from the blue, concluded with the recommendation of more mingling benefitting all. Here it is in case you missed it: https://bit.ly/2qBs0kB

And part of the impetus for this humble screed is Halloween itself.

For those who are and always shall be kids at heart, we know we’re preaching to the choir. When we suggest donning a costume for the day, taking yourself a little less seriously and instead putting smiles on your co-workers’, colleagues’ and perfect strangers’ faces, we know you’re way ahead of us.

Sure, it’s fun, but it’s also a way of knocking down barriers. In our mutual silliness, we are all reduced or elevated, depending upon your perspective, to a level of equality, to the same playing field — emphasis on playing. There’s joy in that. Collegiality. Partnership. And as Casper the Friendly Ghost might chip in, spirit.

If you’re frowning right now, indigestion threatening as these words bounce up and down on your sensibilities, please reconsider. Even if your strong inclination is to make no Halloween concession at all and turn off the porch light tomorrow evening and humbug the holiday into some web-filled chamber in the back of your brain, think about the social interaction you’re sacrificing. Think about the bridge-building, no matter how minute or fleeting, you’ll be missing.

Why not dress up and laugh and make Halloween one small but meaningful step on the path to indivisibility?