We all have some thing or things that we really, in truth, should not be frightened of. For the most part, these things are strange, childhood recollections or pointless images or objects that we have actually given negative connotations to in our minds. The other night while I could not sleep, I began to dwell upon my irrational fears. I suppose that these objects, if viewed in the right context, could be frightening or dangerous. In Tucson, Arizona, however, it is unlikely that I will have to meet up with any of them, and therefore it's pretty pointless to even consider them an issue. Here are a few of my favorite (or least favorite, as the case may be) things, further explained by Wikipedia. I will not be posting pictures, because I AM AFRAID OF THESE THINGS.
1. Leeches
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeches)
I don't care if they're the blood-sucking type or not. It doesn't matter. They're freakish. They look slimy, they lurk in water, and they have anticoagulant spit. They leave sores. They feed on the dead and the living. They're just...disgusting. Perhaps I SHOULD stay in an arid area after all.
2. Eels
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eel)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moray_eel)
I put the second wikipedia article up there because it illustrates how an eel's jaw works. No creature should have two jaws.
When I was a teenager, I went to a dumpy aquarium in DC. There wasn't really much there and you could get through it in minutes. I usually love aquariums, but this one just about broke me. Eels are camouflaged creatures. I rounded a corner quickly without paying much attention. Suddenly, this big, eerie eel came POPPING out of a rock. He came from nowhere, horror movie style, mouth opened and everything. Thanks, eel, but no thanks; I will not end up as your dinner.
3. Nematodes
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nematodes)
Hey, kids! Ready to give yourselves nightmares? Read the wikipedia page about nematodes. I deal with these things REGULARLY...gross. An equally frightening wiki page on nematodes is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creeping_eruption
If you haven't yet seen the correlation, I don't like water-related beings. The oceans scare the crap out of me. I'd like to say it's just an immense respect, but it's not. I'm horrified of them. I'll go to the beach, but I will not go in.
I'm going to end this blog with something that I don't find frightening:
"It is at night, especially when the moon is gibbous and waning, that I see the thing. I tried morphine; but the drug has given only transient surcease, and has drawn me into its clutches as a hopeless slave. So now I am to end it all, having written a full account for the information or the contemptuous amusement of my fellow-men. Often I ask myself if it could not all have been a pure phantasm—a mere freak of fever as I lay sun-stricken and raving in the open boat after my escape from the German man-of-war. This I ask myself, but ever does there come before me a hideously vivid vision in reply. I cannot think of the deep sea without shuddering at the nameless things that may at this very moment be crawling and floundering on its slimy bed, worshipping their ancient stone idols and carving their own detestable likenesses on submarine obelisks of water-soaked granite. I dream of a day when they may rise above the billows to drag down in their reeking talons the remnants of puny, war-exhausted mankind—of a day when the land shall sink, and the dark ocean floor shall ascend amidst universal pandemonium."
ReplyDelete-HP Lovecraft, friend to all aquatic life
If it makes you feel better, I'm afraid of balloons. Once I was in a store and they had a string/banner of ballons outside the front door and the wind was blowing them back in, all while I was trying to leave. I stood there in panic, almost crying for a good five minutes until I saw a brief moment to escape. So I get the whole irrational fear thing.
ReplyDelete<3 Julie