Last week I took my first trip on one of Christchurch city’s new scooters. It was a great ride and a brilliant initiative and I’m hooked.

The scooters are convenient, fun, affordable and simple to use. Well done to those who made this idea into a reality for our city.

Surprisingly not everyone is so positive. Many recent reports suggest that this initiative has brought nothing but pain and injury to Christchurch with reports of injuries and scooter smuggling.

I struggle to understand those who can only see the negative of such initiatives. But then some people seem to be glass-half-empty people, unable to see the positive in anything. I am sure that a few millennia ago when the wheel and fire were discovered some people gave their lives to opposing the spread of these new developments.

I’m reminded of the words of St (Pope) John XXIII at the opening of the Second Vatican Council on 11 October 1962. He was speaking about people who fear any new development and said “We feel we must disagree with these prophets of doom who are always forecasting disaster as if the end of the world were at hand!”

The marking of 31 October as Halloween (literally “All Saints Eve”) became significant for Christians who were preparing to celebrate the feast of All Saints the following day on 1 November.

I have nothing against the marking of Halloween, even with its images of unsettled spirits scaring the wits out of complacent neighbours. But Halloween only makes sense in the light of the great feast of hope that follows: The feast of All Saints brings a divine invitation to live without fear and to dwell here and now with a calmness of spirit.

We live this calm hope by remembering that when we live in relationship with Jesus Christ we have nothing to fear since he leads us and even carries us through every problem and anxiety to hope, even through death to life.

Some people mark Halloween with its masking of reality and fear without the hope-filled context of the feast of All Saints that follows. They are missing the best part.

While a scooter used recklessly may cause carnage, the person of hope will be able to see the beauty and possibilities offered by every new initiative.

Thanks be to God for those who bring new life and hope into our world in a great diversity of ways.