How hard it is, however, when the world seems to turn on you once in a while! And for many people caught in the trap of sameness or in the throes of despair, the torture is most painful.

Halloween, they say, has become such a deeply commercial practice that kids and their parents no longer think about what it means.

A Catholic priest last Sunday gave a stinging sermon during Children’s Mass about how parents buy costumes without discerning whether the “character” being asked for has a good or bad influence on the child.

The “Joker” movie is currently the rage among youngsters — his depression, sadness and rage touching a chord somewhere deep inside, especially when he, in the movie, stuns a city with a rant against people who don’t really care about other people:

“You don’t listen, do you?” he says. speaking to a psychiatrist who is supposed to be helping him deal with his mental illness.

In a society that either ignores or tramples on people who are “different,” Joker as Arthur Fleck — a wannabe clown with the saddest life, it turns out — also realizes: “The worst part of having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don’t.”

The psychological thriller based on the DC Comics character “Joker,” follows Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), “a failed stand-up comedian who is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City,” according to a review.

Perhaps many people nowadays feel like the Joker somehow — trying to make a life, trying to fit in, but always getting derailed, disparaged or disenfranchised.

Through many years and under so many “saviors” in the form of leaders like Thomas Wayne, who derides the Gotham citizens as “clowns,” people simmer until they boil up and cause riots.

It’s the way things are in fictional worlds because that’s how it can be in real life.

Such dark thoughts do tend to rise on a day like this, with Filipinos undertaking to celebrate Halloween, the day before All Hallow’s Day or All Saints’ Day.

Christians celebrate All Saints’ on 1 November and All Souls’ on 2 November.

Halloween is considered a pagan holiday, but there are cultures that have similar practices, such as Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead (a cultural celebration that also inspired the animated movie, “Coco”).

Filipinos spend the holiday visiting their dead, bringing candles and flowers. Prayers are said, and it usually becomes a family gathering of sorts where relatives tend to stay awhile, eat a lot, reminisce and catch up on one another.

One thing about this tradition: in remembering our loved ones who have passed away, we are reminded of how fleeting this life is, and if we are to turn philosophical (not psychopathic) about it, then we should aspire to make each day count.

How hard it is, however, when the world seems to turn on you once in a while! And for many people caught in the trap of sameness or in the throes of despair, the torture is most painful.

They are the ones who fall against the abuses of fellow man — the loan sharks, the drug pushers and the human traffickers. And if we are to think of more misuse and mismanagement, we have the minds who did not think about the dire consequences of their actions (or non-actions), which led us to disasters like mass deaths, drug-related violence, humongous traffic and the water crisis.

And the irony is that those whom society thinks of as “ill” — in the sense that they do not act “normal” or say things that are “acceptable” for most people — are sometimes the ones who have the true intentions.

Only much later do we find out who really were the sinners and who were the saints in their lifetime.

We, today, have the chance to reflect on these things. We still have the chance — and the choice — to live as we will.

Perhaps, then, even as we remember our dead, we should pray as fervently for ourselves: all the living… the living who are trying… the living who feel dead… and even the living who are wasting precious breath doing nothing for anyone.