Earth is a haunted house. It always has been. 

There is no heaven or hell. No Hades or Fiddler's Green or Valhalla. There's no escape to a better -- or worse -- world after death. There's just Earth. And yes, the soul exists, and it's eternal. Anything that ever lived -- every person, every animal, every fish and bird and spider and even the plants -- eventually becomes a ghost. Forever. Forever and ever. 

Some of the ghosts get to be interesting. They get to be Headless Horsemen or Ladies in White or Vanishing Hitchhikers or La Lloronas or Stringy Haired Ghost Girls or whatever. 

Most just get to be themselves. Just mostly invisible, mostly intangible, mostly watching what the living do. Most aren't even particularly scary, until you realize how many of them are lurking about. The famous, the infamous, the utterly forgotten, the nobodies. Everyone you ever knew who died? Ghosts. Every dead president and king? Ghosts. Cavemen? Ghosts. Dinosaurs? Ghosts. 

All of us?…

"Ma chérie -- "

"Yes dear?"

"What is this...'Hunky-Dory'? What does it mean?"

"Oh, well. It means, you know, peachy keen."

"Peachy what?"

"Or, you know, fine and dandy."

"Fine and...what is a 'dandy'?"

"Ah, well, you see, a dandy is a fellow who dresses real nice."

"Should men not dress nice?"

"Well, I mean maybe, but you know what I mean, right?"

"I think we have established, …

One of my closest friends recently quit a really good job at a multilateral financial institution to do an MBA at London Business School. He is a really ambitious guy, so just collecting a fat pay cheque, international travel and managing huge deals was not enough for him. I admire his courage, because he has done similar things which turned out alright. Like me, he has a professional accounting qualification. However, his work experience is largely consulting and auditing while mine is investment…