The spooky season is upon us.
It’s always been one of my favorite holidays—the decorations, costumes, and of course, the candy. While centered on children, I think many adults enjoy it as much as their own kids. I know I do.
While younger, I loved the dressing up and eating candy. As an adult, I love seeing all the different costumes, and would like to still love the candy, but mid-life waistline concerns make the treat part of Halloween tricky to sustain.
All Hallow’s Eve is also a time when we celebrate being scared. As a kid, I didn’t like being afraid. And some things really scared me then, beyond the spooks of Halloween.
Catching a scene of The Exorcist—not the whole movie, mind you, just a 30-second clip—kept me up for two whole days. I was terrified to fall asleep and… get possessed? See a demonic ghost girl appear in my room? I don’t know. But I was scarred.
The Superman III scene where bad guy Robert Vaughn’s sister gets turned into an evil robot also stayed with me a while.
Space Mountain made the happiest place on earth scary—I never wanted to go but it was my dad’s favorite ride and he occasionally talked me into that traumatizing experience.
Spiders and roaches freaked me out, too. And the idea of them crawling on you—or in you—in the middle of the night—was haunting. Growing up in Florida only worsened this fear, as some bugs are as big as the flip-flop you use to squash them.
The dark, in general, was frightening. I preferred a nightlight up until being a teen, whereby I was mostly afraid of getting in trouble with my parents.
Looking back, these scary things seem silly. Many fears are irrational—except spiders, which are forever terrifying—based on the unknown or things we can’t control.
While ghost girls, robot ladies, and darkness don’t keep me up at night these days, other things do. A haunted house filled with job loss, cancer, germs, or something happening to my kids or wife would be a nightmare.
While serious—and more realistic—these current fears still share something with my silly childhood ones: how they are perceived. That's what fear truly is—a perception. Sure, there are some very serious phobias needing professional help to overcome, but as for mine, they only scare me when I give them more attention than they deserve.
That said, ignoring fears isn’t the answer. I don’t think solely being courageous is either. For me, the opposite of fear is found in the idea of trust. If we trust in something—our abilities to overcome, laws of science or physics to keep that roller coaster from collapsing, healing medicine, or faith—that trust can override the distracting perceptions fears cause and help us see more clearly. I like the faith option best, because of the what God says about fear, and Him being way bigger than those other options.
We can’t help being afraid sometimes. We just have to remember where to look. Except when it concerns spiders—it’s hard to look away from them when they’re staring at me with their many, many eyes. Always be afraid of spiders.
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