Ink Out Loud: What are you afraid of?
I stared at the words on a poster in my guidance counselor”s office each time I visited her.
I loved that poster. Written in swooshy 1970s-style cursive it stated: “If you”re careful enough, nothing good or bad will ever happen to you.”
Well, I”m not careful enough.
I am recklessly and probably terminally unafraid.
Growing up, my dad constantly asked, “What are you doing, Mandy?”
It was as if I drew the wrinkles on his forehead with my own psychological pen.
Sorry, dad.
I heard once that a fear of snakes may have Biblical roots — collective consciousness dating back to the Garden of Eden perhaps?
Nicole was 2 or 3 years old and we were visiting a friend in Missouri. We walked hand-in-hand next to a culvert when I spotted the snake.
“Hey look at that snake,” I said as I pointed to it.
She looked down, screamed, gasped, pulled loose of my hand and ran down the sidewalk a couple hundred yards away.
Her little face was red and she had both hands over her mouth.
So I slid down the ditch and picked up the snake.
I was pretty sure it was some sort of garden snake. I held it up. I didn”t want her to be afraid of everything, after all.
She responded with a shriek, “No mommy, I don”t want you to die.”
“Well, that backfired,” I thought. I scared her more.
Now an adult, Nicole is a cautious researcher, but isn”t afraid of snakes if they”re not poisonous.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in a twin study of a clinical sample of heritability of common phobic fear, common fear of nature phenomena and situational fear had heritability of zero.
Some of the most common fears involve dentists, spiders, germs, clowns, air travel, heights, drowning, darkness, being alone, bees, social situations, inescapable situations, confined spaces, fire, cancer, thunderstorms, cemeteries, insects, mice, rodents, lightning, and the end of the world.
Some scholars claim that people who regularly attend church or religious services are the least afraid of death.
So what are you afraid of?
I asked some of my friends and the answers were more complex than the aforementioned list.
One friend said she was most afraid of being old, alone and living in poverty.
Another friend said his biggest fear was the “Dodgers winning the World Series.” But seriously, he said he was afraid of having Alzheimer”s or another brain and memory-altering disease.
A co-worker told me he wasn”t really afraid of anything, except for “maybe developing fears.”
When I was in my teens, I had a friend named Jean who was ridiculously superstitious.
“Make sure the blade of the dinner knife faces the plate.” She”d say, “? it”s bad luck the other way. And don”t let the knife point down in the jar of mayonnaise, oh, and not across the top either ?”
I don”t know where she learned all that.
I haven”t seen her since childhood. That”s OK, I suspect she is pretty neurotic about now.
I was reminded of Jean when reading about the most bizarre fears, which included fears of: Peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth, teenagers, the Pope, bald people, the number 13, buttons, loose hairs, laughter, sunlight, chins, dinner conversations, opening eyes and finally, my favorite recorded fear is — drum roll please ? Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, defined as a fear of long words.
Mandy Feder is the Managing Editor at Lake County Publishing. She can be reached at mandyfeder@yahoo.com or 263-5636 ext. 32. Follow on Twitter @mandyfeder1.
