On Halloween, 1926, the legendary Harry Houdini died. Houdini was not just a magician, but a noted debunker of spiritualists and mystics who claimed to be able to contact the dead. He even arranged a code with his wife that he would use to try and reach her after he died if could find a way. It never happened.
While yet a boy I sought for ghosts, and sped
Through many a listening chamber, cave and ruin,
And starlight wood, with fearful steps pursuing
Hopes of high talk with the departed dead.
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, Hymn to Intellectual Beauty
There is no world beyond this one. I don’t find that frightening; it just makes the time we have here all the more precious. It also means the only ghosts that wander the earth are the memories of people we keep and cherish.
So it is on this day that I make special time to recall those people I’ve cared for who are no longer with me, but whose spirit will always be a part of my life.
Happy Halloween.