Sunday night I attended the annual All Souls Procession that proceeds from Fourth Ave and University to Downtown. As per usual, the costumes were intricate, the music was varied, and the crowd was extremely diverse. The mass of people who join to celebrate and remember the dead in this parade grows larger every year. I was amazed at how many people were there and even more amazed at how many different kinds of people were there! How was it possible that one event could draw the hipsters, the cultured upper class, students, dancers, the Hare Krishna, Scottish bagpipers, the young, the old, families, animals, and so many more!?

This kind of turn-out truly denotes a universal cause. And yes, because the Procession mourns those who have died and everyone knows someone who has passed on (even if it’s just a pet goldfish), it is in fact a cause to which we can all relate.

So I put on my Coordinator of Community and Public Relations Hat and got to thinking… How can our Cause at CODAC Behavioral Health Services garner such a passionate and devoted following? What is the secret behind the All Souls gathering? What draws people in by the heart strings? It is memories. It is lives. It is people that have passed away. The point is not how each person died or what their mistakes were or the problems they may have had. The essence is the objective beauty of the human spirit. The human spirit, life, love—they trump all.
We do not ask questions of those who are dead, we just honor them without bias.

I only wish that the passion and dedication that people displayed this weekend at the Parade could be channeled into another cause. If only we could get that crowd passionate about helping people who live with a mental illness or addiction. Why must there be such stigma for those who endure these challenges, shouldn’t their lives be honored just the same? How can the community be brought together for living people in such a fantastic and impressive way as it was for the dead?

Honor life now, not just posthumously.