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| Some mountain town in Ecuador Photo by Arlee Bird |
What Haunts You Most?
My recent posts at this blog as well as at Wrote By Rote have dealt with the concept of ghosts being a metaphor of our memories or symbolic representations of the things that haunt us in some way. There are many who believe in the actuality of spiritual or supernatural ghosts while others of us consider the prospect with skepticism.
I would maintain that though they make great subject matter for fiction, there are no actual ghosts of the supernatural nature. This post is not to disprove the matter or to examine any evidence regarding the existence of haunting or visitation from a spiritual realm, but to mention the subject in passing. Personally I think any "ghost" sightings are more a manifestation of evil spirits or entities desiring to deceive us, but that is a subject of a different post. What I'd like to offer to you is the concept of ghosts as the metaphor as defined in the opening of this post.
Memories and human emotion can arguably be responsible for imagination that can result in seeing or sensing things, feeling a presence, having undefined fears, experiencing delusional thinking, and other manifestations that might easily perceived as a ghostly presence. But as it often said, it's a matter of mind. As we age, that landscape and history of metaphorical ghosts increases in population in our minds. Could this aspect of aging have some bearing on mind malfunctions of senility, dementia, Alzheimer's, or other disorders? Does the mind experience overload?
I'm rambling a bit and don't expect to come to any conclusions in so brief a space. What haunts us varies according to who we are and what we've experienced. As for me there a spotty childhood highlights that have impacted me. High school is almost a blank--too much television perhaps. My college years are filled with missed opportunities that I sometimes ponder. Most of my ghosts though are from my later years. Not recent years, but the years from about age 38 to 58.
No regrets, not in the respect of things that burden me and suck up mental energy, but merely touchstones that provide me reference. The ghosts try to haunt me and they do that sometimes. But they don't do a very good job if they're trying to drag me down. They just cause me to stop and think for a moment and then move on. I'm not a ghost hunter by any means, but I am aware that the ghosts are always there.
Do regrets burden you? Are your failures and missteps hindrances or learning experiences? Do you believe in actual ghosts from a spirit world?
And Now...Drum Roll Please!...
Battle of the Bands Results
"If You Have Ghosts"
My recent Battle of the Bands post featured the Roky Erickson song "If You Have Ghosts" as performed by John Wesley Harding and Swedish heavy metal group Ghost. This was a tough for me, but voters cast for a decided winner.
This song was first introduced to me on the Roky tribute album Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye. The cover version of "If You Have Ghosts" was performed by John Wesley Harding. I like the way he does it, a version that I later discovered is very true to Erickson's original version, and Harding's version is the one I'm used to hearing.
When I heard the band Ghost performing the song I was impressed. Their version is very smooth listening with skillful delivery. I very nearly went over to the Ghost version, but then with repeated listening I decided that Harding's version just plain had more to it. There was more going on with the instrumentation and in the end the vocals were more powerful.
My vote goes to John Wesley Harding.
Final Vote Count:
John Wesley Harding 9 votes
Ghost 23 votes
Starting Monday November 9th:
A Very Special BOTB Week!
My next Battle of the Bands scheduled for Sunday November 15th will be a very special post. On that day I'll be linking up with our fellow BOTB contributor Guilie Castillo Oriard from Quiet Laughter. Our song picks will be stylistically similar and both related to a recent book release.
As many of you might know, Guilie has recently released her book The Miracle of Small Things. Currently on her blog tour to promote her new book, she will be stopping by Tossing It Out for a guest post on Wednesday November 11th. During her visit she will not only discuss her book, but also introduce my song pick for my upcoming BOTB post.
It's unlikely that any hints about the song I might provide ahead of time would give any of you an idea of my song pick since that song is probably one with which you are unfamiliar. However, Guilie is well aware of my song pick and the artist who sang the original. Always on a mission to provide musical education, this is one of those songs that I enjoy and hope that you might enjoy as well. Guilie and I hope you'll expand your musical horizons a bit more with a couple of our favorite songs. You won't want to miss these posts!
