Halloween Frights

With Fright Night, Halloween, only a few moonlit evenings away, a blog about scary things seemed appropriate.  What are you more frightened by, things of the imagination, or things that we all agree represent valid physical danger?  Maybe it is a combination of both that gives you the 'heebie-jeebies'.

I'm short.  I could be wrong, but I feel a lot of short people have a natural fear of heights, acrophobia.  It's not as bad now, but as a child I can recall being virtually dizzy if looking straight down from anything of height, more so if I wasn't confident in what I was standing or sitting on.

We had a barn in our backyard.  The barn, of course, had a hayloft.  My friend and I were in grade school.  He wanted to throw some loose hay down on the gravelly path and jump from the hayloft down to the ground.  He did it!  Naturally, he berated me to jump as well.  I failed to see a good reason to do it.  Then he said he would come up and push me if I didn't jump.  Well, I would rather go down on my own, so I jumped!  As a teen, I climbed a ladder onto the roof of the house for a chore.  In trying to get down, I knocked the ladder over.  Once again, I was faced with the need to jump!

Heights, clearly, represent a true physical danger, made all the greater for a person uncomfortable with those heights.

Another fear of mine is claustrophobia, the fear of being unable to escape or being closed in, tight quarters.  This fright is not too great unless combined with coimetrophobia, the fear of cemeteries.  Don't tell me you are not at least a little afraid of waking up in a buried coffin (typically in a cemetery).  By the way, coimetrophobia is a word I found on wikipedia but can't find in a dictionary.  That's another fear, using words incorrectly in public writing!

Ok, I gave you a couple of my fears, why don't you share yours?

My greatest fears are the stuff of my imagination.  Not Frankenstein, Dracula, Freddy, or any other horror picture ghoul.  Those belong to someone else's warped imagination.  My fears are the things I imagine: financial insecurity; extreme health issues; and greatest of all, loss of my wife and kids from accidents or evil people.  These are the elements of my own warped imagination.  The fear I feel is real, even if the physical danger may not be.

What can we do?  In Psalm 56:11 it says "in God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me?" (NIV)  But note, the verse says what can man do to me.  What if our greatest frights are NOT from people?  Then we need to keep it even simpler.  When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. Psalm 56:3 (NIV)

I have written a story.  It explores some fears.  Maybe the greatest fear you have is whether or not you will make the right choices.  My story, Lumen: The Guise of Darkness also explores making right choices.  This novel is free to read online or download as an Adobe Pdf.  Kindle users can buy it for 99 cents.

Read my superhero mystery novel free!