Ghost Busters

None among us got a guide book to this life--though having had one could have saved us a lot of trouble, I guess.  But where's the fun in that?  Instead, we get to write our own, making it up as we go. Just when we think we have it all figured out, something changes and we have to do a rewrite.  

That's one reason I love reading--poetry, novels, memoir, and books by wise people who have figured out some things I'm still working on.  Good books are like good friends--you hate to see them leave.  

Ever since Kate recommended Hauntings, I've read a little bit every day and underlined about half of it.  It's a little book by a Jungian psychologist, but some paragraphs take three or four readings to take in.  As I near the end, I think I'll start re-reading from the beginning.

At  2 a.m., I woke up with some peculiar symptoms, probably due to steroids bouncing around in my system.  The first thing I did was wash the dishes left over from last night (if you get sick, someone may come and see how messy your kitchen is, and we can't have that).  The second thing was to imagine driving myself to the ER.  The third thing was to text Mike: "Are you up?"  (I did all these things in about ten minutes).  Mike said it was probably reflux and talked to me until the ghost of Possible Catastrophe went away.

According to Hauntings, ghosts show up in many forms--including voices from the past, beliefs, and symptoms.  Often these motley ghosts bind us so tightly to their opinions that we have to struggle to silence them to hear our own voices.

My lifelong mantra has been "To thine own self be true..." from Will Shakespeare. What makes it a mantra is how hard it is to be true to the ever-changing self who needs constant reminders. Be true to...which self?  The Self people tell us we are?  The Self we used to be?  The Self we wish we were?

I'm thinking today of the theme song of that old movie, Ghost Busters: "Who ya gonna call?  Ghost Busters!" I called Mike.  Actually, I texted him, and he called right back.

The movie I watched yesterday was a perfect companion to this book.  Empire Falls, based on the Pulitzer novel by Richard Russo, is about one good and likable man (played by Ed Harris) whose life is haunted by things that happened when he was a child. As the plot moves forward, we see flashbacks of his childhood and feel the gravitational pull of Little Miles' childhood on his adult life.

Literature is like that.  The characters are a lot like us and everyone we know.  They have hopes and dreams and plans, but something or someone stands in their way.  We keep reading because we want to find out how the character banishes his or her ghosts and breaks free.