Decoupling From The Matrix: Halloween Addition

They’ve rigged it so that if you want to participate in Halloween, you have to hand out corporate candy from basically either Mars, Nestles, or Hersheys. But just as an experiment four years ago, I baked chocolate chip cookies and offered kids a choice between store-bought candy or homemade cookies. I was shocked at how many chose the cookies. Thinking I wouldn’t get many opting for the cookies, I only had 13 bags of them made, 2 to a bag. I was amazed to discover I had gone through all the cookies with only one child opting for the candy.

3 years ago, with covid happening, we skipped Halloween. The next year, still in the midst of the covid pandemic, I didn’t think many would choose something that was handmade. Still, I tried my experiment again. Sadly, we weren’t able to hand out treats in person because we had somewhere else to be. But when we got home, we found all of the candy AND all of the cookies we’d left out were gone. I’d be curious as to which went first, but I’m still surprised that the cookies went as well as they did, 16 bags this time.

Same experiment this evening, with similar results. I went through my 15 bags of cookies with only one child opting for candy. For the first time after 4 years, I didn’t get that panicky feeling that I was doing something wrong and that I would be reported to the police for giving out…