Fear, what is it that scares us? As a kid, the one thing that scared me above all else was a single “Boy Meets World” Halloween special. In this episode the cast, now in their final year of high school, are required to stay after school for detention due to a fight that broke out among them. Throughout the episode, each of the well known characters is killed off one by one, including Mr. Feeney who dropped to his knees and then to the floor with a pair of scissors in his back. Needless to say, my eight year old psyche didn’t take too well to this cheesy sitcom horror. Fear, as a whole, has changed since the days of Friday night sitcoms at my grandmother’s. As I have grown older and I have sought to gain answers, as I have pursued the “why’s” of life, I have also gained a new understanding of what fear is.As we have all been told, we are afraid of what we do not understand, what we cannot fully comprehend. We are frightened by the dark, because it is literally the epitome of mystery. When the lights go out, so does our assurance of the world. Think, for a moment, of the notion “paralyzed with fear.” our first thought may be that of being unable to move as a fiendish monster races at a unmoving victim with murderous intent. But Is that the limit of its application?
Fear to me is no longer the word I use to describe the things I avoid. One of my favorite things to do now is to watch “horror” films in order to try to really scare myself. I push myself to find my threshold. Fear in my eyes is a challenge, a challenge my own conscious has created. It has set forth a boundary, one that is defined entirely by my own fright. And it is up to me to overcome them. It is within this context, that the “paralyzed with fear” concept develops practicality. How many times have we said “no” when invited to experience something? How many time have we let life pass us by because we were afraid of being embarrassed, looking bad, or getting hurt?
It seemed to me that life was full of too many possibilities to live within self created limitations. I have missed out on too many thrilling nights, to many exhilarating situations, too many stirring relations ships, too many stimulating conversations, and over all too many one in a life time experiences. I do not fear death, for if I die tomorrow I know that it is only a new adventure, and, in the end, if there is no god or second life, I will left the earth (early or not) with a life lived to fulfillment. In my wake I will have left no road untaken simply because I was afraid of what may be lost.
Art: A great interpretation of what it is to be scary
Art: A great interpretation of what it is to be scary
Music: today, as we focus on fear i figured i would end with the adequately named song "Monster" by Meg & Dia
Cheesy song is cheesy, but otherwise nice post and good observations. As a writer who choose predominantly to delve into horror, I consider it my job to put things in my stories that people tend to prefer to avoid. I find those things they don't want to see, and I give it to them, I make them look anyways.
ReplyDeleteHorror is essentially made up of that very thing, when you pick up a horror-story, you're giving the writer the incentive to give you something you wouldn't ordinarily want to look at. You're confronting your worst fears, just by reading that story, if only vicariously.