"Someday's gonna be a busy day..."

Friday 11 September 2009

Boo

Facebook has many ridiculous questionnaire-type apps (Who would be your celebrity boyfriend?! What colour is your Aura?! What alcoholic beverage are you?!) which, for reasons that I haven't thought about too closely, I seem to keep trying. I think they're mostly harmless little time wasters that you forget about moments after you publish your results (Ben Affleck! Aqua! Beer!)...but one did make an impression on me last week.

"Which ghost sleeps in your room?" popped up on my feed page. And I have a thing about ghosts, so I took it. And the result? Well, here it is, in all its grammatically grating glory:

this dog grew up on a farm in the 1800's but drowned in a lake. this dog doesnt only sleep at the end of your bed every night but he follows you everywhere you go and keeps you away from more danger than you realize. all of your lucky escapes from trouble are thanks to him.

Hmmm.

I did have a bull terrier named Henry who choked to death in a tragic apple incident about 12 years ago. He would have cheerfully chewed apart anyone who tried to harm me, so he'd make a pretty sweet ghost doggie. Except I don't believe in ghosts. Which is problematic, because I'm writing a novel about them. Yeah. Go figure.

I shouldn't say I don't believe in ghosts at all; the fact is that I'm kinda scared to believe in them. I don't want to meet one, not now, not ever. But I have felt, at different times throughout my life, that I wasn't alone in a place, even though technically I was the only person there. Especially in our old house in New Hamburg and here, at Someday. Both places are 100 years old and are bound to have some sort of history kicking around them.

But does that mean there are ghosts? Dunno. My friend R is convinced that our blue room must be haunted because her daughter acts weird whenever they sleep over there. It was supposed to be Rose's room, so who knows? Maybe Rose comes out to play with R's daughter. Gah! I just gave myself a shiver.

The thing I struggle with is not knowing whether ghosts are friendly or mean, good or evil, interested in humans or unobtrusive. If they exist, why are they here? How come they're not living it up in the afterlife? And what do they want from us? These are the questions I have been wrestling with for ages, and the elusive answers are holding up my novel's progress. I can't write about ghosts until I can figure out what exactly they want from my character. If you have any ideas, I'm all ears.

Or maybe I should just ask ghostie Fido tonight.

6 comments:

Eileen Astels Watson said...

I'd rather have an angel hanging around me. I wonder sometimes if the two are mistaken for one another. I believe in angels, not so sure about ghosts, though.

Kimber said...

My older sister often refers to my encounters as angels. Not sure why I'm more prone to refer to them as ghosts?

MrsS said...

Maybe they don't want anything from you, Kimber - maybe they're bringing something to you - or watching over you to make sure you're safe. xx

Phil Bean said...

I think that, more than ghosts need us, it is us who need them. We need them in order to believe that there might be more than just this life, that we can somewhat exist beyond this world in order to make up for all those things we already fear to be unfinished before our time comes, serving as a reminder to live while you can...and also to give us the heebie jeebies

Kimber said...

Mrs. S, I like the idea of someone or something watching over me. I have a hard time reconciling my concept of God and the afterlife with ghosts or spirits though. Well, at least it gives me something to ponder when I'm up at 4am nursing!

Phil, you need to come visit Someday and see if you get the heebies. You seem like a pretty level headed fellow so I'd be curious to see whether you get creeped out.

Lois said...

Hey Kim.
I believe in guardian angels and I know I have one.
I call ghosts "energies" and yes I do believe in them and have had them around me all my life.
(It's ok if you laugh. Not everyone believes in them and that's ok too!)
I remember once when I was a about 5 years old,I told my dear Gram's that I didn't like ghosts (Back then that's the word I used.) I remember her laughing and saying that the dead would never hurt me.
She told me that I didn't have to worry about the dead people, that it was the live ones that I had to watch out for.
Truer words have never been spoken.
I believe energies that may enter our space are only passing through on their way to better things. If they are bothering you in any way then tell them they are not welcome and ask them to leave.
Can't hurt might help. I've done this before and the problems stopped.
Hope this helps.
Anyways, thanks for sharing.
Stay safe.
Lois