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These were the things I was afraid of when I was younger--the beast under the bed and the beast in the closet. For a short period of time I was also concerned about about the scratch at the window, because I knew when I looked up I would see the curdled-milk look of the recently undead, calling for me to open up, to invite them in. And I would...
These, of course, were not the only things of which I was afraid, but they stick out in my mind. I grew up during the time of the Vietnam Conflict, gas shortages, and the Iran hostages, but at the time they had as little effect on me as the Boston Marathon explosions have on my own five-year-old daughter. Except for an semi-abusive quasi-stepfather (and I can only remember one incident with him, and while I think it was incredibly fucked up, it was actually kind of mild, especially considering what he could have done and how I believe he treated my mother) and one screwed-up incident with photographs I actually had a relatively stress-free first decade. The second decade, on the other hand, more than made up for it in stress.
I don’t know what it was like for adults who lived during the time I was growing up. I know, from a lot of reading that people were afraid. After all, a few generations before mine spent quite a bit of time preparing for nuclear attack (of course they prepared by hiding under school desks, so I think that we can agree they didn’t necessarily have all their shit together).
My daughter is going to grow up in a culture of fear. You can’t escape it. When I was a kid, a television had three or four channels. And you actually had to go to the TV and physically change the channel if you wanted to watch something different (or have a kid do it, which is why I think a lot of families did have children). Today, you have hundreds of channels. You have channels dedicated to 24-hours-a-day news. When I was a kid, the news was at 6 and 10.
The funny thing is that we are safer from violence than we were ten, twenty, thirty, fifty, one hundred years ago. Not that you would know that by watching television or getting on the Internet. These have replaced the boogeyman or the monster under the bed. If you really want to scare a kid into behaving (which is what the boogeyman was often used to do), sit that brat in front of CNN or Fox News or MSNBC, and he or she will never ever want to leave the house again.
It’s a wonderful time. We have so much at our fingertips. But maybe, just maybe, what we need to do is occasionally take our fingertips away, turn off the computer, turn off the TV. Maybe check under the bed. See if that monster is under there. He’s probably starving by now.
These, of course, were not the only things of which I was afraid, but they stick out in my mind. I grew up during the time of the Vietnam Conflict, gas shortages, and the Iran hostages, but at the time they had as little effect on me as the Boston Marathon explosions have on my own five-year-old daughter. Except for an semi-abusive quasi-stepfather (and I can only remember one incident with him, and while I think it was incredibly fucked up, it was actually kind of mild, especially considering what he could have done and how I believe he treated my mother) and one screwed-up incident with photographs I actually had a relatively stress-free first decade. The second decade, on the other hand, more than made up for it in stress.
I don’t know what it was like for adults who lived during the time I was growing up. I know, from a lot of reading that people were afraid. After all, a few generations before mine spent quite a bit of time preparing for nuclear attack (of course they prepared by hiding under school desks, so I think that we can agree they didn’t necessarily have all their shit together).
My daughter is going to grow up in a culture of fear. You can’t escape it. When I was a kid, a television had three or four channels. And you actually had to go to the TV and physically change the channel if you wanted to watch something different (or have a kid do it, which is why I think a lot of families did have children). Today, you have hundreds of channels. You have channels dedicated to 24-hours-a-day news. When I was a kid, the news was at 6 and 10.
The funny thing is that we are safer from violence than we were ten, twenty, thirty, fifty, one hundred years ago. Not that you would know that by watching television or getting on the Internet. These have replaced the boogeyman or the monster under the bed. If you really want to scare a kid into behaving (which is what the boogeyman was often used to do), sit that brat in front of CNN or Fox News or MSNBC, and he or she will never ever want to leave the house again.
It’s a wonderful time. We have so much at our fingertips. But maybe, just maybe, what we need to do is occasionally take our fingertips away, turn off the computer, turn off the TV. Maybe check under the bed. See if that monster is under there. He’s probably starving by now.
