My neighbor’s daughter, Gina, says she doesn't mind the ghost in the house. Visiting her parents during a college break, she tells me she saw him while catching up on laundry in their basement.
What do the young know about living with ghosts? When you're young, youth seems like the natural state. It's as hard to imagine living beyond sixty, as it is dying at twenty-four. In middle age, you have been relieved of the vague notion that the people you know will be around in their seventies. After a few phone calls about hit and run accidents, a suicide, heart attacks, and an overdose, the knowledge that you might not see next year becomes a part of your general understanding of life. Parents, siblings, friends, neighbors, teachers, sometimes your own children, are gone without warning. When so many of the people you know are only available in your memory, you straddle that space between the living and the dead.
What do the young know about living with ghosts? When you're young, youth seems like the natural state. It's as hard to imagine living beyond sixty, as it is dying at twenty-four. In middle age, you have been relieved of the vague notion that the people you know will be around in their seventies. After a few phone calls about hit and run accidents, a suicide, heart attacks, and an overdose, the knowledge that you might not see next year becomes a part of your general understanding of life. Parents, siblings, friends, neighbors, teachers, sometimes your own children, are gone without warning. When so many of the people you know are only available in your memory, you straddle that space between the living and the dead.
Oh, ye Dead! oh, ye Dead! whom we know by the light you give
From your cold gleaming eyes, though you move like men who live.
It is true, it is true, we are shadows cold and wan;
And the fair and the brave whom we loved on earth are gone,
But still thus even in death
So sweet the living breath
From your cold gleaming eyes, though you move like men who live.
It is true, it is true, we are shadows cold and wan;
And the fair and the brave whom we loved on earth are gone,
But still thus even in death
So sweet the living breath
Hi Lisa,
ReplyDeleteSo there's a ghost in your family? I'd like to hear more about that. I was pondering today that I would like to live each day and treat each person I come in contact with as if it's the last day I'll see them. I don't always consciously carry that out though... like I'd like to!
Keep up the good work - this made me curious for the next writing. Sandee
So simple and yet powerful. Madam Curie spent her life regeretting that her last words to her beloved husband were harsh during a terrible arguement. He died right after in an accident. Thank you for the lovely reminder.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the ghosts are the lingering memories of all those you have known. There are many people I "live" with in my mind who I might never see again. We don't know if we will see any of the living people in the future who occupy our memories. The ones dead and gone take up space with the living. Research says it is much the same for elephants. This seems to take on more signifigance as we age.
ReplyDelete