2024 06 05

Jack-o’-lantern’s final resting place. Chicago, Illinois. March, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

How many spins around the Earth does it take to flatten a pumpkin so its festive Halloween features are no longer visible?

The joy of carving it, while tossing seeds and slimy innards at each other; The laughter of children and polite gratitude of parents as their kids collect a few bars of chocolate; The flickering flame from a candle set careful inside the proud and hallowed interior.

Once the days get shorter and colder and snow starts to fall, you toss the pumpkin into the yard, set between the cherry tree and some shrubs, thinking it might be nice to give them a slow-paced meal of nutrients. Carefully, over the course of some months, you document the process with an occasional photograph, which may eventually make an interesting series but will more likely be immediately forgotten.

Do your neighbors think you are a lazy bum for leaving Mr. Pumpkin out to rot? Perhaps so, but their short-sided thinking can’t even imagine all the fun this pumpkin is having on its final many trips around the gravitational core of our planet as it slowly deteriorates and becomes, once again, one with the Earth, ready to transform into something new and refreshed.

-Clayton