Scary Story
Posted: Tuesday, October 11, 2011
by Dianne Lehmann
Artisan Jewelry from SyZyGy
A while back (mid-summer I think, or it might have been longer ago, time just seems to fly by these days, it was this year, though, I'm sure of it), Turner Classic Movie channel ran a series of old sci-fi/horror flicks. Bernd (my husband) and I recorded a lot of them and had a ball watching them. We laughed. We tore them apart. It was especially amusing when they ran a bunch of English-dubbed Japanese sci-fi movies. It was great good fun all around.
I can't now, all these years later, tell you what about it terrified me. I do remember visiting my aunt and uncle in Ohio (we lived in southern California at the time and boy was that a long, hot drive in 1959 in an Oldsmobile station wagon without the modern convenience of air conditioning) and being very frightened when I found out that I would be sleeping in a bedroom on the second story. I was certain the Behemoth was going to come along, reach right through the window which was at such a convenient height for him and snatch me from my bed as I lay sleeping. It didn't happen no matter my utter certainty … a lesson in belief. My parents probably thought I was nuts because I wouldn't tell them what scared me so much that I didn't want to get into that big fluffy feather bed all by myself. Sinking into it like it was a cloud was not at all reassuring.
Today, my scary stories unfold a little differently. They don't include the slow reveal of some hideous monster bent on destroying mankind and the earth, or at minimum some young, innocent and very attractive female. There are no creatures from black lagoons, re-animated mummies, crawling eyes (that one scared me quite a lot too), men with slashing knives for fingers who invade your dreams, blobs that eventually eat entire cities, alien death machines popping out of people's stomachs or the like.
It's the real events of this world that have the power to terrify me. Deliberate cruelty, criminal negligence, intolerance, terrorism, thievery murder, etc., etc., etc. all scare me beyond measure.
Is it any wonder that I don't watch the news on television? That I don't pick up newspapers to read? I'm not wearing blinders, though. I just prefer to keep a positive attitude and look for the good, delight in the good, and rejoice for the good that does get done.
I never turned my head away as some despicable monster tore a hapless individual limb from limb. It wasn't real and couldn't hurt me (that was a later realization, try telling that to a seven year old, but I'd look anyway). And I acknowledge that evil does indeed exist. My hope is that I and others like me, by keeping a positive outlook, can help to influence the entire world for the better. You never know and it certainly couldn't hurt.
Wouldn't it be great if we could leave horror to the movie makers and writers of books (don't get me started on Stephen King though, oh my)? What a wonderful world it could be if scary stories were only scary stories.
This Article has been viewed 222 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Nice one. Well done.Hi Jack.
Thanks!
Hugs,
Dianne
I like your article. Horror seems to be a popular genre. People seem to have an almost masochistic attraction to the grotesque and scary aspects of life or fiction. I personally dislike horror stories. Dwelling on dark subjects without looking at a source for hope is discouraging.Hi Joel.
I also find that to be the case. That's one of the reasons I enjoy the author Dean Koontz more than Stephen King. Koontz has crafted some totally despicable characters and horrid situations, but it always comes out right in the end. Without that, it would just be awful.
Most film makers understand that we need the triumph over evil. A few like to shock us with unappealing endings. I always feel abused when I watch one of those.
But we do indeed seem to like to be safely frightened. Why else would roller coasters be so popular?
Thanks for commenting.
Hugs,
Dianne
I love reading your observations, your experiences of life, but there is good news amongst the bad, try the news tomorrow, or yesterday or last week, depending on when you read this, there are lots of shiny people just like you and all over the place! Give them a hand!
Just read your comment above, how can you feel alone living in nature as you do? There is a beautiful thread that runs through eveything, its all around us, or are you teasing us?
My best wishes,
TerrenceHi Terrence.
I had to read my comment again because I wasn't quite sure to what you were referring. I don't actually feel alone. And you are right, a big part of that is because the natural world is all around me. I'm just not sure, even after all these years of trying to figure it out, how I feel about God or Creator or however you might like to look at it.
I do think that all things have an energetic essence that cannot be denied. And that these energies can combine. When I walk through a forest of huge pine trees, I can feel them all around me ... tall, silent except for the wind through their needles, strong and enduring. They sing inside of me and I know that it isn't my imagination.
So maybe that's what God is ... all of us living things combining our energies.
Oh, and I know that there are shiny people out there ... a few of them are my friends.
More hugs,
Dianne
Nice article, Dianne. I don't blame you for not wanting to read or see the news. I just wish somebody would do a news channel about the good stuff. I'm sure plenty of people would be interested. I hear so many people say how much they hate the news that sometimes I wonder if we might even be in the majority! Wouldn't that be ironic? I know, I know, I'm sniffing glue...Hi Jennifer.
Do people REALLY enjoy hearing bad news? I guess some might (it might make them feel better about their own lives). But I believe most of us do not. But it's the bad stuff that gets the biggest press.
There is this one show on television, TMZ, that goes after all sorts of celebrity types (most I've never heard of). The reports aren't bad, they aren't good, some are indifferent, many are absurd. The camera man asks silly questions of these people and records their responses for all of us to see. They are caught doing odd things, everyday things, looking good, looking bad. It is sometimes very interesting. Bernd and I will often watch part of it while waiting for seven o'clock to roll around (we're on central/mountain time and all our shows start an hour earlier than elsewhere). TMZ doesn't bother me as much as the regular news but I can't say that I really get much out of it. Except for the realization that the people that so many other people revere in one way or another are just people like the rest of us.
Thanks for reading!
Hugs,
Dianne
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.