Ghost Hunters

I watched a TV show tonight that is one of my favorites; totally mindless demanding only that you cede control of preconceptions and ideas and just accept it for what it is. The show is called, "Ghost Hunters". It airs on the SyFy channel and I highly recommend it as an hour of escape and entertainment.

The premise is that a team of Ghost Hunters goes to various locales to investigate paranormal activity; things that go bump in the night.

Most of the time they hear things and "feel" things. Once in a great while they catch a visual that is truly hard to explain.

The people doing this are totally sincere and likable, and if you just "go" with their flow, it is a strangely relaxing time.

The entire concept and the enactment of the idea set me to thinking. What is a ghost? If one exists it's an entity, a spirit, a trace of something that was once living, which for a reason is still hanging around "this orb". Haunting, if you believe in such, or simply hung up, unable to get to where it belongs or should go.

So taking the big IF and running with it a minute, I wondered, "Am I a ghost hunter? For that matter, are we all ghost hunters?"

And the answer, most definitely, is yes, or we should be.

We are all constantly chasing ghosts. Sometimes we even lose ourselves, our lives in the pursuit. We are all haunted. Scrooge may seem like a wonderful tale for Christmas, far removed from our true lives, but in essence we all have a "Christmas" past, present, and future, embedded in every moment of life. A pattern so tightly woven together that it's near impossible to discern where "reality" begins and the netherworld ends. And we are bound up in that "haunting", no matter our denial or ignorant bliss.

Do you have a doubt about something? Does the ghost of some past choice whisper in your ear, effecting your actions today? Each and all can in an eye blink go back to a moment and see, hear, touch, smell and feel it as if it were now. And we breathe new life into that ghost and it isn't yesterday anymore, but today and it happens all over again. Perhaps you're chasing tomorrow so madly you can almost "see" it. The ghosts seem so real, don't they? Today has disappeared from attention in the dust of the chase.

Maybe your ghost whispers (metaphorically) in your ear as one of mine did almost every day for years. It seemed to inhabit almost every waking moment (and some sleeping ones). And I smoked to shut it up. Maybe you go for the ice cream or the corner. Or you could be someone who jumps boldly into the open; "I ain't afraid of no ghost".

No matter; for there is no escaping that we are as much the ghost(s) of others as we are what we call our self. Traces of every living thing in this world brush up against us. The ideas and hopes and joys and pains of mankind "haunt" us, are imbibed by each and every. Our own fears, dreams, failures, and even successes all have a very real ghost(s) attached to them. And though we never conceive the idea, I bet our ghosts are out there right now haunting someone, as part of their past or future being brought into the present.

One thing I like about these people on "Ghost Hunters" is that they respect the ghosts. They confront them if they're "bad" and tell them to be on their way if they don't want to behave. And if the ghosts are only hanging around, they accept them.

If I had seen this show earlier in life, it might have made the road easier. But, it's not too late to make a difference. I just might go hunting for a few of my ghosts which have hung around for years; reach peace with them, accept them, or tell them to take a hike. It's way past time to leave them scurrying around in the dark corners. And some of them just might make for fun companions once they're exposed to the light.

Happy Hunting.

Social Engineering

Talking with my friend Keith tonight about my earlier blog. He mentioned something about how much the young were missing. I know they have so many things to distract them -- distraction, that's what passes too often for entertainment/stimulation/fulfillment -- but by being distracted the young are allowing themselves to be "sold down the river".

Seems to me that society is socially re-engineering itself.

More and more people focus their attention on less and less; the screens get tinier and the attention spans shorter. It appears that the norm will soon be ADD and the world will be the size of a cellphone screen.

Just imagine: if the young are trained to think that the world is the two or five or ten square inches in front of them, then we've solved a major problem of the population growth. THAT SPACE is their reality. There is little to no recognition of the world outside of that space. They cannot compute open space, using tools, or face-to-face real-time cognitive conversation.

There is no relationship to the source of anything, including life.

And if you think I'm exaggerating, open your own eyes and look around.

Each day more and more people, not just the young, are plugged-in, wired-up, mp3-ing, texting,

and otherwise lost in a fantasy, alternate reality universe. A universe that in truth has nothing to do with actual reality.

One day in the not too distant future, this alternate will crash. What then?

As my friend Keith pointed out, "They're in for a rude awakening."

Dirty Work

Worked planting jasmine and honeysuckle today. Also transplanted some bulbs to a better spot.

There is nothing on God's green earth much better than plants, seeds, and dirt to ease the heart, mind, and soul. It wears one out while at the same time rejuvenating.

Requires simple, direct focus--no mind wandering here--along with a leap in faith that "this hot and dirty work" will somehow be rewarded. Oh, you can water a little and hope and pray; but, truly, once the seed's in the soil, it's up to Mother Earth.

Thus, this dirt digging becomes a simple act of faith.

An act of faith so simple that it may be akin to what we all felt as children. Remember how the simplest action had a reward? How the ordinary was extraordinary? Fill in your own memories here.

So, I guess I'm saying that I played in the dirt like I did as a child today. And, if you haven't done the same in a while, I recommend it.