Here we are, you and I, alone. Alone in the dark...at least that's what we hope. There is no telling what sort of mangled horror creeps and lurks within these shadows. Why, it could be right behind you now as we sit here. It could be grinning its silvery grin, raising one claw toward your neck. Or it could be in your closet and when you open the door to lay out next mornings' wardrobe, BLAH!, it pops out from behind your best suit or dress (or ugly Hawaiian shirt), all teeth and ragged claws. Why, it could be anywhere.
But listen, I assure you we are alone at this very moment. We are alone, and for now at least, let us palaver. Let us talk about fear. While the horrid beast has yet to find us here in the dark.
Now, now, there's nothing to be scared of here. Look around you. Empty darkness as far as the eye can see. Listen, you hear nothing but a slight rustling. So slight it's barely heard at all. But fear not that rustling, my friend, it's nothing but a few stray leaves that followed us here. Soon the sound will be gone, and the breeze here will die. So relax, move in closer...and let us speak of terrors, let us talk about what scares us, and what fear is exactly. Why are we afraid of what we're afraid of?
I see you're a bit shy, so I'll start, okay? Good. Okey-Dokey. When I think of fear, I think of humanity. Sure, dogs, cats, everything can feel fear, but it is us humans who are able to articulate that fear. We're the only things on this vast planet that can bring our fear into focus, if not a little fuzzy at times, and learn to deal with them. But let's face it. Some fears are just there to stay. Some fears, no matter how much will you think you have, still cling nastily on. Haunting us till our dying day. Mine will always be heights. To this day I still can't get up on the roof of a house to help shingle it, or clean out the gutters. The worst part for me is the ladder. If I had an elevator to the roof I'd be one happy critter...as long as said elevator is enclosed. And as for water parks? You know, the ones with all those giant water slides and tubes looping and twisting every which way like giant petrified serpents? No dice. There's no smucking way your getting me up there just to slide down a tube. Nope, not gonna do it. And I don't care how hot it is. I'm smucking scared of heights okay? Okay.
That is my biggest fear, heights. I can all to imagine a bolt coming loose as I ascend to the water slide, or the step I'm standing on, because the mother smucking lines are always so long, gives way under me and I plunge sixty or so feet straight into solid concrete. I blame my fear on an over active imagination. But I digress.
Now, tell me...what is your greatest fear?
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5 comments:
Fear. A great and very uncomfortable topic. The older I get, the more I seem to gain. My teacher wanted us to write a short story using eight of our biggest fears. I got to about six listed and thought, "Yeah do I really want to admit this to a class?"
So I took the easy way out and named things a little easier to deal with.
Christina,
I think admitting your fears is a way to help you cope with them, hence why I posted the topic. I need to cope with my fear of heights, and the only way can do that is to either talk about it or weave it into a story. I've got a couple other fears lurking inside me. One is, don't laugh, the boogieman. I know it's a childish fear, and I know the boogieman really doesn't exist, but sometimes, while lying in bed I just get the feeling that something is watching me from the darkest corner of my bedroom. Watching, and I imagine, licking its hidious chops.
I think there are two levels of fear...one is that which we avoid..and the other is that which haunts us at a deep level.
Me? I am afraid of becoming incapacitated, losing my intellectual abilities and my imagination, and being a burden on the people around me.
After my brain surgery for my burst aneurism, I felt like I lost something of myself. I wasn't as quick witted, my short term memory was shot, I had a hard time completing sentences because I couldn't remember words...it was like being mentally disabled but knowing that you weren't always that way. Terrible.
I would just stare for long periods of time. Sometimes in resturants, people would get weirded out and walk away, but I couldn't snap out of it.
Yes. I think I agree with the two levels Stewart. I have both, I think.
And Chuck...wow. I can't think of anything else to say...just, wow.
Okay I thought of something. That must have been terrible indeed! My God. Good thing your here with us today, though. Good thing.
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