Out of the whole pantheon of monsters, only two really scared me when I was a kid. I remember discussing this with my friend Danny when I was about 7 or 8. Danny was scared of vampires. Not me, though. Vampires were certainly very cool and very scary, but I knew they weren't really real.
Ghosts, though -- I wasn't so sure about ghosts. People die all the time, and it seemed entirely plausible that some of them would get lost on their way to heaven or wherever else they might be headed, and choose to return to haunt us. So ghosts scared me.
And sasquatches. Growing up in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, we occasionally had to set bear traps in our backyard. So the prospect of a giant, and possibly hostile ape-like monster roaming around unseen just outside our window was a little disquieting. So I made sure to keep an eye out for them, especially when camping. In fact, I am convinced I saw one when I was about 3 or 4 years old, but my fuzzy memory of the incident looks suspiciously like a pre-school math poster, so it's possible my imagination took me for a run.
I'm a lot older now, and though I haven't totally discounted the possibility of the existence of ghosts or sasquatches, I don't spend a lot of time worrying about them. There are other monsters to deal with now. Big scary monsters like Debt, Depression, Divorce, Disease, even Death. I'm not saying I've encountered these monsters personally (I'm not even married, for one thing), but I know they're out there somewhere, roaming around in the wild of life. Sometimes they capture friends of mine and eat them right up.
Have you ever lost a job? Or lost a dream? Lost a loved one? Loss is a swamp monster that can drag us all into the murk from time to time. Fear is another one that can sneak up on us unexpectedly. I imagine Fear is kind of like a vampire, or maybe a leech, sucking away our lifeblood and our enthusiasm for life. Scared yet? There are more -- lots more. Rejection, Loneliness, the Easter Bunny, Anger, Abuse (a many-headed monster), Hate, you name it. They're all out there, lying in wait.
So what can you do? Hide? Fight? Protect yourself somehow? I don't know. Really, I don't. Life is life. Not to be a downer here, but into each life a little crap must fall. Or rain. Whatever. And we all have to deal with it on our own terms, like it or not, ready or not.
But hopefully you're not alone. Hopefully you have your family, and your friends who will be there for you. Faith, too, if you're into that -- I am. But if not, then use another 'f' word against the monsters in the darkness. You know which one I'm talking about. Use it loudly and defiantly. Maybe the monsters may still win, but don't let them have you without a fight. And sometimes they don't win.
Even if they do, though, life isn't over, you're not done. Maybe things have changed, but just make the necessary adjustments and move on. I know it's easy to say, but we all have to do it.
Do you know why it's so important to get on with your life? Because life still has a lot of adventure, blessings, fun, and good times to offer you. As surely as the monsters will come looking for you, so will the, umm, anti-monsters or whatever you want to call them. Monster Busters. And you don't want to miss those -- if you do, then the monsters will have really won.
So yeah, I hope I didn't scare you -- that wasn't my intent. I just think it's important to acknowledge the darker side of life, in order to more fully appreciate the Light. I hope you were able to read this and think, "Yeah, I'm ready for the monsters. I have my family, I have my friends, I have my faith." But if you don't have any of that stuff, you can always email us. Unless your particular monster is the ghost of a sasquatch -- then you're on your own.
Nathan likes to explore the different off-ramps and twists and turns on the great road of life. He claimes he has no special qualifications to be an iamnext writer. Sure, he has a BSc, but really . . . However, Nathan has traveled extensively, in Asia and Europe, and has hitch-hiked across Canada, and he has learned a few things along the way. Just enough things to know he still has a lot of learning still to do. Copyright 2003 iamnext.com May not be reprinted without permission.
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