We are afraid of the wrong things

Picture: Google.com

At an early age we’re predominantly taught ‘right’ from ‘wrong’. From the time we’re in our diapers till never! Do the following statements sound familiar ‘ Touch that and you’ll burn’, ‘You’re not getting any ice-cream till you mouth that last pea on your plate!’, ‘God sees everything so if you’re lying your name is going to be written on a huge stone in heaven’ the list goes on…. Our parents and kinder garden teachers were the most creative and influential life teachers.  

I remember growing up silly stories my parents would ‘make up’ just to keep me on the right path. One story in particular stands out. It’s a story about a mysterious ‘unknown’ man who had a long black car, at a certain time of the day he’d abduct kids on the street and drive off with them. This was of cause their way of getting me indoors by 5pm! But there were a lot of loose holes in the story such as ‘did this man have an assistant?’, ‘judging by his description, was he a pimp?’ and most importantly ‘what happened to his victims?’

And at times my folks would say things such as: ‘Little Johnny from three doors away got abducted by the ‘Mystery man’ because he was out till 5:30. That’s the last time he was seen’. And being the truthful parents they are, I’d believe them.  Comes the next day, you’d be playing rope with your friends and out of nowhere would appear Little Johnny, lollipop in his hand and with the other waving cheerfully at you. Parents!

 To end on a serious note, we are afraid of the wrong things because not only do they bring us undesirable, unfulfilled results and consequences. But because deep down inside we’re all aware that we are greater than our imperfections.