Recently I have started to follow a good many authors. Several are extremely friendly and talk to me like I'm a real friend. At least two that I know live near me, I think I could be real friends with them. One of them encouraged me to enter a writing contest, although I am not sure she knows she did. I like to support new authors, I can only imagine how scary it must be and how you can easily slide into a funk if you don't take off right away, or start to think your work sucks.
Anyway, I friended several authors on facebook, and then several started friending me, then a few editors and publishers. Before I knew it I am in the middle of the author world. These are really amazing people. They put a part of their soul into each book. I know the book I am attempting to write has some very personal tidbits in it, but if you didn't know me personally you would never know what parts they are.
One of the things that recently came up in this circle of the publishing world is pirated books. It was wrong when music was being downloads illegally, the government went after 80 year olds and 6 year olds, charging outrageous fines. I remember Metallica had a huge backlash of some of their fans over pressing forward with lawsuits and pushing forward for criminal action to be taken. The same thing with pirating movies. So now the new thing is ebooks.
All of this got me thinking. Plenty of people said things like "I can't afford to buy all the books I want." "The publishers are at fault for making them too expensive." "The book stores jack them up when a book gets too popular and they know that everyone wants to read it while it is popular" and just can't wait to read it now, or go to the grocery store and get it 25% off.
And this is what I have decided. I have never illegally downloaded any music or movies. I wouldn't do it with a book. I get free books aplenty on Amazon, all legal like! I wasn't raised to steal, and this is stealing. So why do people do it. Well my answer would have to be.... because we live in hell. This is it. There are those of us that live to add something a little better to the world. Put a smile on others faces, remind them of love or excitement in their youth. Maybe we just want to let someone know that they are thought about kindly, or thought about at all.
Then there are the ones that don't care. They are more concerned in how to get theirs. No matter what. They suck the life out of what ever they can and usually that means they get what they want, when they want, and damn the consequences. They don't care that someone put their lives into something wonderful, they only want their immediate gratification, and certainly don't want it to be taking money out of their pocket. SO if they can support others that do the same thing, immediate gratification by cheating to supply others with immediate gratification, they all seem to find each other.
The question then becomes; If a person has in the past participated in an action that is wrong, be it illegal in the truest sense or what would be considered open for "civil action." They know they did wrong. Everyone makes mistakes.
But at what point do you remember that we all have a moral compass, we all have the inner whispers of what is right. Do you become the person you want to be? Or..... Do you remain the person you have settled to be?
I remind myself everyday to Remember The Person I Want to Be. I don't want to be a cheater, liar, or a thief. I don't want to be a mother that teachers her children that is allowed in even the smallest degree.
And I'm sure invairably someone will put that on a plaque or a t shirt and tell the world they came up with the saying "Remember the person you want to be." Nope it was me, I've been telling myself and friends that for years now. But it is so much easier to steal. (sarcasm)
Monday, July 23, 2012
Monday, July 9, 2012
Ghosts Are Not Evil
I had a friend of my sister's ask her if I could come look at her house. She had toys moving around and weird smells. A mutual friend of theirs told the home owner that she had a demon.
I went to look around the house and it was very interesting. I love to do this sort of thing because I am curious if I will actually pick up on something. I guess I still occasionally doubt that I'm not just completely insane. LOL Both times they thought they had a "demon" or an "evil entity." Both times it was just a misunderstood spirit. That happens more times than not.
The first house I visited, my sister's friend, there were two spirits there. One was a little boy. He was really adorable and kept peeking at me around corners. Sadly he was hit by a car right in front of this house. She had kids that this little dead boy was drawn to. He just wanted to play, which is why the toys kept moving. There was another spirit there too. This is the one that made them think they had something evil. He is a teenage boy that is very protective of the little one. He is a typical brooding teenager. He was angry that he was stuck here. He never did anything but his emotions were very strong. If a person has any tiny bit of sensitivity at all, they will pick up on the emotion and become unnerved by it. I just asked him to calm down. It was okay to leave. He thought it was funny to make the bathroom smell like sewage. Typical pissy teen.
The second house a woman told me that there was a demon that lived upstairs and she didn't like going up there. Her fiance' was being attacked. As it turned out, after I visited and spoke with the spirit, a woman was beaten to death by her boyfriend and died (not in the house). She was angry that another woman would live with a man in the same house, under the same circumstances. The spirit kept calling the homeowner "stupid," she was stupid for living with a man. After I explained that he was a good guy and needed to leave them alone, she understood and calmed down. She really thought she was protecting this woman.
So often the TV shows like to push the idea of evil ghosts. People like to be scared so they give them something to be scared of. Many of the shows like to use EVP's (electronic voice phenomena) The thing is... they don't catch the entire statement. If you have heard these EVP's you will hear choppy statements, one word, and nonsensical things that the show then interprets for us.
For example, "Get out." The TV shows would have you believe that this means the spirit wants them to leave. However if you could hear the entire statement they are probably saying something like, "Help me get out." When they hear, "Die." It may just mean, "I didn't want to die." So often when EVP's catch children. They are looking for their parents, or asking to go home, saying they are scared. But that would break people's hearts, so they don't show that on these shows.
I think it is extremely irresponsible for these shows to only show the scary side of spirits. I think that is why Ghost Hunters is the only one I like. They are always telling people there is nothing to be afraid of. That is a much more responsible way to approach hauntings and spirit interactions. I'm lucky that I have spirit guides that tell me when there is more to see.
I went to look around the house and it was very interesting. I love to do this sort of thing because I am curious if I will actually pick up on something. I guess I still occasionally doubt that I'm not just completely insane. LOL Both times they thought they had a "demon" or an "evil entity." Both times it was just a misunderstood spirit. That happens more times than not.
The first house I visited, my sister's friend, there were two spirits there. One was a little boy. He was really adorable and kept peeking at me around corners. Sadly he was hit by a car right in front of this house. She had kids that this little dead boy was drawn to. He just wanted to play, which is why the toys kept moving. There was another spirit there too. This is the one that made them think they had something evil. He is a teenage boy that is very protective of the little one. He is a typical brooding teenager. He was angry that he was stuck here. He never did anything but his emotions were very strong. If a person has any tiny bit of sensitivity at all, they will pick up on the emotion and become unnerved by it. I just asked him to calm down. It was okay to leave. He thought it was funny to make the bathroom smell like sewage. Typical pissy teen.
The second house a woman told me that there was a demon that lived upstairs and she didn't like going up there. Her fiance' was being attacked. As it turned out, after I visited and spoke with the spirit, a woman was beaten to death by her boyfriend and died (not in the house). She was angry that another woman would live with a man in the same house, under the same circumstances. The spirit kept calling the homeowner "stupid," she was stupid for living with a man. After I explained that he was a good guy and needed to leave them alone, she understood and calmed down. She really thought she was protecting this woman.
So often the TV shows like to push the idea of evil ghosts. People like to be scared so they give them something to be scared of. Many of the shows like to use EVP's (electronic voice phenomena) The thing is... they don't catch the entire statement. If you have heard these EVP's you will hear choppy statements, one word, and nonsensical things that the show then interprets for us.
For example, "Get out." The TV shows would have you believe that this means the spirit wants them to leave. However if you could hear the entire statement they are probably saying something like, "Help me get out." When they hear, "Die." It may just mean, "I didn't want to die." So often when EVP's catch children. They are looking for their parents, or asking to go home, saying they are scared. But that would break people's hearts, so they don't show that on these shows.
I think it is extremely irresponsible for these shows to only show the scary side of spirits. I think that is why Ghost Hunters is the only one I like. They are always telling people there is nothing to be afraid of. That is a much more responsible way to approach hauntings and spirit interactions. I'm lucky that I have spirit guides that tell me when there is more to see.
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