The Ghost Whisperer-- separated at birth?

My husband laughs at me on Friday nights, because I cannot get through a single episode of "The Ghost Whisperer" without weeping. Not just crying, but big tears, runny nose, sniffling, wailing.... weeping.

Before I go on, I want you to know that YES, I understand that it is a cheesy show and that there isn't much to it, but I would argue with anyone who thinks that because of that there is, indeed, NOTHING to it. I find it to be very profound.

For those of you who haven't seen the show, I'll briefly describe:
Melinda, the main character, seems like a totally normal human being. She runs a little antique shop (I think it's in South Carolina... at any rate, it's close enough to Raleigh which means it's supposed to be close to us somewhere) and has a pleasant enough little life. Good friends. Nice house. She's pretty, but awkwardly pretty, not in a generic kind of a way. She's funny. She's intelligent. And she sees ghosts. These ghosts are drawn to her because they know -- on some level-- that she sees them. And drawn they are, in every episode the basic drift is: she "meets" a ghost, the ghost takes her on a wild goose chase as she desperately tries to get it "into the light" and in the end, all is well, the ghost goes off to eternity and she is left to wonder what the next day will bring.

I relate to Melinda like no other TV show character I have ever seen.

First,there's the obvious. She sees these ghosts. The connection there is blatant-- I "sense" spirits-- sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes human, more often not. So I tremendously relate to the comical situations she finds herself in --- drawn to the normality of life while at the same time constantly coming off as "quirky" because she has no choice but to respond to the spiritual reality she is aware of. I laugh out loud every time she gets caught having conversations with no-one or taking actions that to the outside world would make no sense at all. Our experiences are often quite dark and sinister, and yet we both retain this fascination with what we do.
I think about how many times I've been caught "staring intensely into space" or "making a wierd face" or "not paying attention." I relate to the difficulty of having to live two types of lives.

In the show, she's like a little detective, using clues she gets from the ghosts to examine their families and surroundings until she comes up with an answer that explains why the ghost is not "free" to go into the light.
I jokingly say that my own investigative journalistic skills get put to the best use when I'm in mininstry, because like her, I'm working with clues to help me help a person and uncover the truth.
Late nights will find both of us scouring the internet looking at records, letters, photographs--- anything that will help us to uncover what exactly the source of the trouble might be.
In fact, many a friend of mine has watched it with me and laughed...saying: "Dude, that is SO you," as she rabidly taps away on her laptop, powering through death notices and old newspaper classifieds, obsessively searching for new contact numbers and old employee records.

She helps dead people who want to be alive, and I help living people who are so tired of life that many of them wish they were dead. There is an element of one-on-one counseling and committed compassion that goes into this work that reminds me so much of what I see when I watch her work--- ultimately, you do this kind of thing because you love people. Because you care. You do this stuff because God threw it at you and said: "Here it is, and not a lot of people are willing to do it." And then you look in someone's eyes, see the hurt in there, and say.... OK. I'm willing.

Her relationship with her husband is truly reminiscent of my own relationship with mine. We cultivate deep, strong love for each other and in the midst of our struggles we have created a bond that nothing could break.
He has to put up with her eccentricities (the fact that her phone rings at any time of the day or night with a clue or that supernatural events around her are a normality) and I KNOW my husband feels that way. At the same time, he grounds her and helps her to stay with one foot in the natural reality, and I KNOW my husband does that for me.

The episodes deal with real-life issues of sin that have the potential to break and destroy--- each week the show examines guilt and shame that stem from every sort of sin imaginable, and covers them so in depth that it leaves me a wreck--- it really demonstrates how PAINFUL sin is for the soul. Likewise, every case that goes by leaves me more and more aware of the PAIN sin causes us.

In the past few months , the show has taken on a new aspect that I connect with deeply--- and this time, the connection is even more uncanny for me. Her husband has been killed and she is beginning to realize that there are dark forces at work and that everything she loves can be "affected" if she isn't careful. In a wierd way, no matter how much love she has within the structure of her community, her family, her friends, she is still aware that she is alone in the world.
And like her, I've often been in situations where my family and friends came under attack, or where they just COULDN'T follow where I was going-- because sometimes, God allows you to be in the desert, and it's a necessary thing. Through this experience and her subsequent grasping at what lies ahead... I have TOTALLY bonded with her in her "holding out for EVERYTHING." The best there is, she knows and I know, lies ahead. Her idealism and enthusiasm and emotional response to the challenges she faces--- oh man, I feel like I'm looking in a mirror.

All this to say that last night, like every Friday, I was absolutely stunned at what a powerful show this is---- how under the "sappy melodramatic made-for-tv" garbage there is a reflective image of the meaning of life as I see it unfolding, and THAT has really affected me and helped me to "hold on" when it seems that no one out there "gets" what I could possibly go through.

In a wierd way, I often feel like it's God, writing it just for me.

Now, I've totally out-dorked you, Brian. :P