(This is an original story of mine, excerpted from a letter I recently wrote to my mother. It is all true. ) The Ghost In The Mirror We have a bona-fide phenomenon here at this little house up on Skunktree hill where we live…we have a sort of talking mirror in the bathroom, the one adjacent to our bedroom. Its just a little half bath with a shower really, nothing fancy at all, but there's a small metal-framed mirror on the wall in there, that relays an old ghostly message to us, whenever it gets steamed up from the shower's moisture. Someone, a former tenant, or guest of a tenant, had at one time, and for reasons known only to them, written this message on the glass of the mirror. Not written with mere fingerprints in steam, but with some sort of invisible permanent substance, maybe petroleum based, or waxy, or maybe some odd type of lipstick, who knows? Whatever the original message was written with, it vanishes like magic ink after drying, and after cleaning the mirror, it leaves no visual trace at all… until the steam cloud builds up on the glass again! And then, with the steaming fumes, a sort of ghostly lettering appears, or better yet, re-appears, bearing the original message, still in the original handwriting of whoever wrote it, back in the who-knows-when. And it tells whoever is currently using the shower, the same thing that it has repeatedly said to anyone else who steamed up the bathroom, a private, personal sentiment, a subjective truth left resounding in time, feelings left behind for someone who is no longer living here, as well as left for someone else, who has either also moved on, or perhaps not yet arrived. Even though we don't mind these long lost sentiments at all, we have repeatedly tried to clean the mirror off well enough to remove the old memo, but to no avail, as it was seemingly smoked right into the glass by a friendly ghost, a caring soul like any of us, who only wanted to relay their message once, and only to one person in particular I'm sure, but who has now been repeating it to every shower-taker in the house for years, vicariously. After so many months of unsuccessfully trying to control it, we now just accept it happily, and when the message returns again, we just smile, and accept its words. Because this is what it tells us, when properly steamy… “I love you so muchâ€, says the spirit writing. That's a pretty nice message to leave behind anywhere, isn't it? I love a nice friendly phenomenon. I love life's little pleasures. I love riding ripples in the pond of time. May the messages we leave for the next generation of tenants, be as useful as the message once left in this mirror, by the ghosts of tenants we've never met, with love. MA
Holy shit thats such a great idea! When I move out of my apartment im going to write some crazy shit on the mirror like that or do it to my friend that's paranoid about that stuff anyway. Sorry, I know im kind of blasphemizing (is that a word?) your post but honestly that would be a pretty funny prank if your buddy gets out of the shower baked and there is some cryptic message written in the mirror.
Blasphemy is, in my opinion, an impossible sin to commit, because it means that there are things which are above criticism, and in my critical-ish thinking, I try to question everything, always. Especially my own shit, I know how crazy I am, you people have no idea... And yes, I'd be tempted to use this technique to mess with someone's head too, no question about it, I laughed like hell the first time I saw this freaky mirror...and it got me thinking, about omens, and about basic mysticism, and how easy it must have been, in the old days, to subjugate whole populations with pretty little stories, not a whole lot deeper than this one. The story was written to entertain a 90 year old woman, who loves Jesus, and thinks swearing is evil, that's why there is no cussing in it, btw. Personally, I think every mirror in the world should have advice for it's images. Maybe...it already does? [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DMzD9mNDOI"]YouTube - Face Morph Age Progression from 4 to 38 year.[/ame]
Which message? The sub-textual message? I don't know if it had one of those... I suppose the subtext is to be aware of past and future residents of wherever we live, and the passing throughout time of batons that we must hand-off while running through the human relay race. Life is a marathon, not a sprint, and we make the most progress when we impact the future with love and acceptance for our transient nature, and accept that we are not the only one's whose lives will grace this place. But I may change my mind on that.
Thank you. That's only one page of it, sometimes I like to write her a small book of short stories about my life, and send it to her as a letter. She has alzheimer's and dementia now, so I can run on and on, she just loves to read. And because of her condition, she can read it again tomorrow and see it as new, all over. Sad, but true. Its all I can do, since I'm so far from her, in another State. And, I hope one day, when my memory is fading and I'm housebound, and unable to walk this beautiful land, that my kid, or grandkids, will write me silly little stories about life as they see it, and not forget how much we love to hear about the life's we've grown to love. There are a lot of elderly out there who'd love to hear from anyone, friend, relative or stranger, whoever has a minute to ramble on about just whatever's on your mind. They lived through the great depression, WW2, McCarthy-ism, Nixon, Vietnam, and now many are having their life support systems erode in this new great depression. Almost every person who's lived beyond 80, is now addicted to several drugs, and having their social security threatened by vampires disguised as bankers, and being pumped full of fear, 24 hours a day, by Fox news! So, a kind word to these people who gave their all to pave the way for us, shouldn't be too much to ask for. One day, if we are lucky, we'll get to be old too. (Passes the Baton)
i know what you're saying. im pretty young still, my parents too i guess. my grandmother is 73 and although she doesnt have any major diseases right now, it suddenly started becoming obvious that she is getting older. which blows. but it motivates me to spend more time with her. i have a friend who doesnt even talk to his mom or grandmother, and it pisses me off because i kinda realize how hard that must be for them. i hate to think about this stuff because it makes me realize that im not going to be young forever either. and i also realized that if i could choose between losing my body and losing my mind (even SOMEWHAT losing my mind), i would keep my mind. like you said, sad but true . nothing is constant
Aging is a hard idea to get your mind around, and yet it is the one true constant of life. This too, shall pass. (Universal Truth) Enjoy this crazy ride, do what you love to do, and party hardy, just don't forget to pass that joint over here, my son, I may be getting old, but I ain't turned to stone yet, so while I breathe, keep me a part of the circle...that's all I ask. As was done for us, so shall we do for others, in hopes of the gesture spreading, right? Live long and grow kind, buddy.