In a 1999 issue of The Sun magazine (have I told you how awesome that publication is?), they printed a piece entitled "Fears of Your Life," written by Michael B. Loggins. Loggins creates art with other adults with developmental disabilities at a center called Creativity Explored in San Francisco.
I remember both laughing out loud and being deeply touched by Loggins' list of fears the first time I read it. His phobias include:
"19. Fear of toys that comes on by itself without anyone touching it."
and
"22. Fear of getting in deep trouble. Or going to get in deep trouble."
and
"40. Fear of getting hit over the head when you carry lots of dough with you. Or bucks."
and
"62. Fear of fog horn."
When I was a creative writing teacher, I used Loggins' "Fears of Your Life" as a model for students to compose their own lists. Here's mine:
Fears of My Life
1. Fear of bad restaurant smells
2. Fear of merging in traffic
3. Fear of climbing over fences
4. Fear of runaway vehicles
5. Fear of snarling dogs
6. Fear of rotten fruit I’ve bitten into
7. Fear of forgotten sandwiches at the bottom of bags
8. Fear of dying in a freaky way
9. Fear of my mug shot on the news
10. Fear of divorce
11. Fear of falling down stairs
12. Fear of my child being sexually abused
13. Fear of being perceived as racist
14. Fear of anesthesia
15. Fear of amputation
16. Fear of being in deep water with no land in sight
17. Fear of scorpions
18. Fear of children becoming drug addicts
19. Fear of my parents dying
20. Fear of rape
21. Fear of not being able to pay bills
22. Fear of ruining career
23. Fear of sour milk
24. Fear of kidnappers
25. Fear of witnessing violent fight
26. Fear of scuba diving
27. Fear of bad smells, like vomit
28. Fear of my skirt being tucked into my underwear and my underwear showing
29. Fear of cheating on my taxes
30. Fear of getting bad news on the phone
P.S. I conquered "Fear of replacing multi-gallon water bottle on water cooler" last weekend. Yes!
4 comments:
Ha! Some of these are definitely the result of growing up in our home--such as the sour milk fear. (Mine extends to fear of spoiled food in refrigerator and moths in cereal boxes.) :-) That darn nose strikes again--I also have a huge fear of bad smells in restaurants. I also can't go in Asian grocery stores like Ranch 99.
when I found the sun magazine I may have wept. my fave. xo
I'm scared!!! I can relate to #3. I had a not so pretty #3 situation once. :( I have many of the same fears....
I need to re-subscribe to the Sun again, I miss it. I have a fear of numbers... may explain why I am 43 years old and just now getting around to Calculus.
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