Surrounded by Ghosts
I read this back on Halloween and thought it was beautiful. (I acknowledge that I wake up on the macabre side of the bed most mornings.)
Isn’t that such a strange idea? Beorn moves through his day, and he never thinks about death. I mean, I’m assuming he doesn’t. At the very least, his existential crisis never stops him from popcorning through his day. So he makes his choices using a completely different set of criteria, and I make my choices always cognizant of death. Of staving it off. Of getting enough time with people before we die. Of getting enough done before I die.
“”
Every single thing is infused with memories, whether we can access them or not. So we’re always surrounded by ghosts, and if we’re uncomfortable with ghosts, we’re not seeing them for what they are. The elements that shape who we’ve become and how we move through the world.
Gorgeous.
2 comments
Girl, you need to practice living in the moment…
Death? Ghosts? Choices? My day is more like…I want some chocolate. I will have some chocolate. The end. 🙂
Be like Beorn. At least one day a week.
Wow, you’ve got me thinking with this one. It reminds me of a scene from The Good Place, when Eleanor tells Michael the same thing. (I’m wondering if that’s where the writer of the article got the idea.) That humans are always aware that we will die. As a result, he has an existential crisis. I’m also aware every day that my time on this earth is limited. And now that a big birthday is looming, I’m even more aware of that. So it influences some of my choices, but not all. And it is helping me plan (or at least, think about planning) rather than burying my head in the sand in a state of denial, as I have seen others do.
I do think though that the writer though has taken her hauntings to an extreme. I don’t think it is necessarily healthy to keep things that haunt her in a bad way – like the cheap candle with the scent she doesn’t like that reminds her of a friendship that soured. Toss that candle, I would say. If she wants to rekindle the friendship, then do something about it. But don’t be haunted every time she walks into the bathroom! Other things that remind us of sadness or regret or guilt are only helpful if they remind us of love, or if they teach us a lesson (for the regret for example). But then if we learn the lesson, we should carry that with us in a positive way (hauntings in the best sense), rather than forever being haunted by the regret or guilt we might feel. That’s just self-flagellation!