Ghosts Are Good Company

In line with Halloween, I figured it would be only right to talk about ghosts. 

"I would have died.  Just to hear voices.  Just to see faces.  I was so alone.  I went deep.  Into my graveyard.  I found my ghosts there.  They're with me still."

Ghosts are manifestations of things that were once in this world.  They're typically ethereal beings that are meant to haunt, but they basically serve as a memory.  Of course, they're not always happy memories.  In the Harry Potter universe, only the ones who fear death and moving on, the "next great adventure" as Dumbledore puts it, will chose to come back as ghosts.  Being a ghost, in the physical sense, is not a good thing.  They are destined to live their entire life in anguish, watching everybody else come and go and being unable to experience the pleasures that set humans apart - food, sleep, love, etc.

I'd say ghosts, when they're not scaring people, help us remember.  When we're alone, we reminisce.  Those that have been lost to us - whether in the physical passing on, or in the more "spiritual" moving on - start to appear appealing.  We begin to want what it is that we cannot have.  But the problem with ghosts is that they give off the illusion of reality.  If we're thinking of the ghost of a loved one (in whatever sense of the term you'd prefer to think it - I have my own in mind), their image will be comforting.  We will be able to see them, hear them, talk to them, but it's nothing substantial.  We can't share anything real.  They are simply memories of what was once real and pleasing.  When we're alone, it's easy to search for our ghosts.  They once gave us feeling.  They gave us purpose and love.  And they're with us still, which can be a blessing, but eventually devolves into a curse.

"I was afraid.  Afraid of this emptiness, afraid of this silence, afraid of my ghosts.  Now they're here and we can share laughter, talk about old times, it's not so bad."

On the surface at least.  And sometimes it's the only thing we can take to get by.  Or the only thing we allow to help us get by.  The emptiness, silence, loneliness can become too much.  We want to reach out again for what was once really there.  And when it's gone, we turn to the memory.

"I can't do this.  I can't do that.  I can't believe I got so fat.  At least ghosts are good company.  I can't believe it is so cold.  I should get up before I get old.  And then I'll change my ways before my ways change me."

And the beauty part in embracing our ghosts is that they will always love us.  They're good company, no matter how much we allow ourselves to fall away, whether in the physical or personal sense.  If we've fallen into a rut and get away from what once defined us, those ghosts will still be there.  They are a comfort.  But they are not real.  That's the kicker.  And we get further and further away from once made us worthy to the physical "living" representation of our ghost in the first place.*

*For purposes of clarity, I'm talking exclusively of those that have moved on in terms of friendships/relationships.  Losing a friend is tough.

"Now the world is suddenly wonderful.  And I think I could live here again.  But these ghosts they will not leave me.  They're the best company that I've ever had."

They are.  Ghosts accept us for everything that we are.  When we return to the real world, we will inevitably be faced with the pain that caused us to seek out our ghosts in the first place.  It's a catch-22.

And the other thing - having the realization, far too often, that the ghost you have been hanging out with is the best company because its physical twin is as well.

The above lyrics are from "Ghosts Are Good Company" by Bishop Allen.