sing for your life.
—-
fear has a large shadow, but he himself is small. ~ ruth gendler
as seen on a local porch
while on a walk downtown
i’m a little bit afraid
and just wondering
what is with all the clowns?
i went with mg
to explore
the old greenhouse
long
untouched
and
there
we discovered
all kinds
of interesting artifacts
from past eras
when
suddenly
he
warned me
not to
turn around
and
i imagined
every kind
of
horrible
gruesome
thing
lying there
but
i had to look
couldn’t
help myself
and
when
i turned
i saw
this
hideous
terrifying
clown puzzle
that had been
left behind
and
and i’d
venture to say
it was
abandoned
for a good reason
and
never missed
by anyone.
—-
courage is resistance to fear,
mastery of fear,
not absence of fear.
– – mark twain
my worst
vacation nightmare
ever
bad clowns
creepy cemetery
seedy motel
remote location
you will not
find me here
ever
—
fear makes us feel our humanity. ~benjamin disraeli
—-
credits: google images, tonopah, nv
avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
the fearful are caught as often as the bold.
– helen keller
(not us)
—
at the dentist’s office
a place of trepidation
for me
waiting
waiting
waiting
when
snoop dogg’s look-alike
walks in
sits down
seems
high
as a kite
i text
sittin’ with snoop
just chillin’
guess we each have our way
of dealing with the fear
for me it’s gas
for snoop
it’s grass
he texts
probably saying
sittin’ with martha stewart
just cookin’
—
i invented ‘it’s a good thing’ before you were even born.
– martha stewart
a few years back, when he was still a wee lad, grandbaby m came all the way from australia to visit for the holidays. we bought a crazy pile of used toys for him to play with, knowing he’d have to leave most of them behind, and planned to donate them back for other kids to enjoy, upon his return home. he was very fascinated by animals – cats in particular, at this stage of his life. while here, he played with real cats, and halloween cats, and we bought him knit cats, cloth cats, stuffed cats, and then – the mechanical cat.
imagine our surprise, after we purchased this cat, when we discovered, it was just not an ordinary stuffed cat, but it had a place for batteries inside it’s belly, hidden under it’s mangy, ratted, orange fur. m took to this cat immediately, and loved to sit with it and play with it and carry it around. the adults, on the other hand, began to become a bit freaked out by it the longer it was around. it had a peculiar habit of moving once in a while, in no particular interval of time, and quite often, it seemed to turn it’s creepy head and stare right at us. (chucky’s feline counterpart in my opinion).
we were all a bit relieved and happy when he took to this creature, figuring it would be traveling home down under with him, never to cross our paths again. imagine our surprise once more, when we discovered they had left it behind, hidden in the house for us to find. we put it back out for a while, under the tree, as it continued to move at will and make eye contact with us from time to time. once the holidays were over, i thought it might be funny to pack it up and bring it out at christmas the next year. i packed it up with the other holiday stuff and forgot about it.
when the next year came, i wrapped it up and offered it as my ‘white elephant’ gift, one that some innocent family member would receive as a lucky surprise. another daughter chose this package, and not knowing, opened it, and there was a collective gasp from the group, as everyone remembered it from the year before. she was a good sport and reluctantly kept it for the year, only to do the same thing to some other unsuspecting relative at our next christmas celebration.
each year now, as is our new tradition, the person who ‘won’ it the year before, brings it back, elaborately wrapped and disguised, waiting to pass it on. each person reports that it does odd and creepy things when they have it – moving at will, making rustling sounds at night, and of course, the staring. each person has used their own strategy to deal with it. one combed its hair out, – trying to get on its good side, some have hidden it, left it in the box, or taken its batteries out. each year, it comes back, rattier, and mangier, and shows its age a bit more, yet it still instills a bit of illogical terror in all of us. this year, it could come back wrapped in a flat-screen tv box, or in a beautiful gift bag, just biding its time, until it once again goes home with someone – and it waits quietly for someone to forget and open it, the year’s winner.
this game was in the silent auction at school and i was not surprised at all that no one bid on it. as it was a leftover, it was very generously offered it to me on behalf of my kindergarten classroom. i happily accepted and looked forward to sharing it with the kinders.
then i put my glasses on.
one in-focus look at this box and i was immediately horrified. between the grinning ‘dentist’ holding the gigantic tooth in massive pliers, all of the other monster-sized tools laying in wait, and the ‘patient/victim’ with missing teeth and a horrified look on his face, i was beside myself. aside from my own dental fear, i imagined that most children seeing the cover would develop a phobia even if they did not have one before.
my free-spirited friend offered to take it home to try on her children, (as well as one of her unsuspecting neighbor kids), to gauge their reaction. this experiment was to serve as an ad hoc litmus test to see how young children might react to it.
upon laying eyes on the game, ‘pearly whites,’ the 3 children in our focus group – sophie, clare, and natalie, instantly loved it and had absolutely no fear of it whatsoever. as a matter of fact, they giggled with delight as they roved around the gaping mouth, moved ahead to the canines, climbed up the bridge of dental floss, slid down mouthwash falls, and moved back 2 spaces as ‘punishment’ for having a cavity. their collective review was, “it was really fun and we want to play again!”
what? perhaps it is just me?
————————————
some tortures are physical
and some are mental
but the one that is both
is dental.
-ogden nash
while looking for holiday lesson ideas to share with my kinder class, i stumbled upon this one from a home-schooling page online. i must say i found it terrifying.
‘jesus in the tomb – cooking lesson’
‘jesus said he would rise from the dead in 3 days. he rose in 3 days.’
supplies needed: crescent rolls, marshmallows, cinnamon, margarine
directions: take one marshmallow and dip it in margarine. roll it in cinnamon. have the children place it inside of the center of the triangle of dough. have them fold the dough around the marshmallow so that the marshmallow is ‘buried’ in its tomb. bake according to the crescent roll package directions. have the children take the role of the guards at jesus’ tomb. have them stand guard at the oven. take the rolls out of the tomb (oven) and let the cool. the marshmallows will be gone, just like jesus’ body was gone!
other suggested lessons:
creative writing – have the children pretend to be reporters interviewing pontius pilate. ask him things like: why did you make your decision? were you pressured into it? have the children use their imagination to answer the questions.
art/literacy lesson – have them lay on large paper, trace them, and write across their chest – ‘jesus lives in me.’
food lesson – make easter sandwiches, crust symbolizes god, white is jesus, fillings are holy spirit. choose your fillings, can use red fillings to symbolize blood, share them, give thanks and enjoy!
after reviewing all of this, i opted to color eggs, hide them, show scary easter bunny pics, and eat a lot of chocolate.
I didn't have my glasses on.... 