Ghosts and ghost projects, in the month of August (from the 23rd to Sept. 21). “Ghost” might as well be the word of the week.

According to tradition, once a year the “hungry ghosts” are allowed to come out to play. Which may be why food, freshly cooked and edible, ready to be consumed, is left on the doorstep or by the gate by families in China and wherever they happen to be.

To appease or please the ghosts on their yearly festival, the superstition grew into a habit and subsequently became a tradition, just like the Halloween practice in Western countries of kids wearing spooky costumes to knock on the doors of their neighbors and friends to ask for candy and treats.

Today, young people use the words “ghost” and “ghosting” in a totally different context, text and subtext. For example, when a suitor suddenly stops visiting on Saturday afternoons, his sudden and subsequent absences may be described as a loss of interest, or ghosting. When a relationship, real or assumed, becomes a one-way street, the suitor has turned into a ghost.

People are no longer scared of ghosts, but they should be wary of ghost writers who are paid to write ugly lies about well-known people. This type of p.r.o. is hired not to praise a client in media or in public but to create negative “news” against a perceived enemy.

In your next life, you might want to be a ghost, such as a talent manager if you cannot be a movie star. It was said of the late, legendary Manay Lolit Solis, that you could not get to a big movie star if you couldn’t get past Manay, who started out as a ghost, then became too famous to stay as one.

Not long ago, there was a p.r.o. – not in the same caliber as Manay – who operated in the style of an unfriendly ghost. His cowardly specialty was negative publicity, he was hired to destroy politicians or popular figures, without revealing his dirty hands, but before he could drop a second bomb on his intended target, he succumbed to a heart attack.

Do intelligent folks believe in ghosts? If they believe there’s a law of consequences, Karma, that’s good enough.