Insects

Nature will bear the closest inspection.  She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.

~ Henry David Thoreau

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I like it when people say that they're not afraid of something unless it is unexpected.   My mom used to say, "I'm not afraid of spiders unless they surprise me."  Or, "I'm not afraid of snakes if I know they're there."

 

I find that to be true for me, too.  Of everything.  I'm afraid of most everything if it surprises me - a bee, a buffalo, a bright light, a bag of flour.  Really anything can scare me.  If I'm walking down the hall and I don't expect a slice of American cheese to hit me in the forehead, that scares me. 

 

I'm not sure where it comes from.  It might come from the time I was a little kid in my bedroom and I was supposed to be going to sleep, but I had the hiccups.  Then my dad ran dow the hall from the living room to my room yelling, "AAAAARRRRGGHHH!"  I wasn't expecting that. 

 

He asked if it stopped the hiccups.  It did.  But it didn't stop the tears.  In fact, it kind of started them.

 

"But," you might ask, "Wasn't that better than finding a spider in your sheets?" 

 

No.  No, it was not.  Why would you even ask that?