Inspired by some musings that one of my brothers shared with me, stories about his life and our family that he wants to share with his grandkids, this little idiosyncratic piece popped up in my head. It started out optimistic when I began, but at the end turned out to be utterly pessimistic.
Ghosts
Published by murraymcclellan
As a retired teacher who has fled the US and is now living in Spain, and as someone who has until now eschewed most forms of social media, I am belatedly beginning to create an online presence. To that end, I am using this WordPress website to archive some of my miscellaneous non-academic writing. I hope that some of my friends and former colleagues may enjoy this collection, which consists mainly of political editorials, light-weight essays, and silly poems. I also post here the latest version of my US History textbook, Key Moments in American History. View all posts by murraymcclellan
Published
Murray C McClellan 
Murray,
Possessing superior intelligence, having had such an enviable professional career, traveled to many magnificent places (and now living in one) whilst having the education to appreciate much of their historic significance, the ghost that manifests in your piece, to me, is wisdom; the wisdom one might assume accompanies your journey and encounters with death, her specter seems to have chosen to abandon you.
Are you not tired? Has every lecture, every oh so clever and witty essay been anything other than an excuse to pleasure yourself – so to speak?
There is something ordinary in death and something ordinary in narcissists. If only one thing is certain, when it’s all over, your expertise will then include both.
To be honest, I would have expected your take to be so much more valuable than the sophomoric, politically accordant and infantile droning that is so ubiquitous, but dressed up so well with your scholarship.
Like you, both sets of my grandparents died long ago. They fled the Nazis in Germany and Fascists in Italy. They fled into uncertainty, poverty and the unknown. That doesn’t sound much like a post-siesta bottle of wine in Oviedo, but I may be wrong. Having so many accusatory graduate students with similar complaints may indeed be terrifying, but why blame a spray tanned orangutan for that?
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Thank you, Hidden Wisdom, for your critique!
Yes, I admit that I am a narcissist, and that, tired though I may be, with my oh-so-clever-and-witty–albeit sophomoric–essays I continue to engage in mental masturbation. But writing is one of the things that keeps me going–that, and continuing to learn new things. And, yes, Death will find me as basically a pathetic excuse of a human being.
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