Where My Wild Fears Were
When I was a little boy I had a huge and, of course, irrational fear of what would come out of my closet at night when bedtime had come and I or my mother forgot to close the closet door. But one day my elementary teacher read the story of “Where the Wild Things Are” and I suddenly had a whole new view on what could be in my room and closet, causing me to see my closet as a newly found playground. While I know the story isn’t so much about fear, it does portray a boy who was dubbed a wild thing by his mother and was brave enough to tame even the wild beasts that he encountered. So in short this story emboldened me as a child.
Now, I feel that I must give a short background story for the liveliness of my former fear at this point. You see I was an only child raised by my mother for about seven years of my life. That may not seem like a long time, but in a child’s mind that’s forever in light of that fact that I was introverted–still am to a degree–shy, and most often alone. So during those first seven years of my life I learned to get along by myself. My toys, the yard, and my imagination were my friends and so I developed a wild imagination to say the least. In fact, I often got in trouble in elementary school for always being distracted. Yes, I was quiet, kept to my self and got along with my classmates, but I day dreamed all the time, honestly I still do to this day (if you cannot tell I’m a child a heart and probably won’t change).
The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands. The blood flows with the fast circulation of childhood. –Sir Richard Burton
Anyway, my mind produced fears that were absolutely terrifying and lead to spending countless nights sleeping while huddled under my bed covers in sweat until morning. The faint luminescent shadows coalesced with the overwhelming pitch black darkness of my open closet had my mind reeling with what could be peering out of the darkness at me, planning to reach out and grab me at any moment. I struggled with this for years in my childhood. But this book, “Where the Wild Things Are” changed it all for me and I consider the writer of the book to have been inspired to change children’s views on the so-called beasts or monsters that can lurk in the corners of a child’s mind, and infamously manifest themselves into the dark places of child’s bedroom.
Today, I cannot stand one bit of light once I resign myself to go to bed. I love the darkness because it simply calms me. Weird, yes I know. ^_^ And so it is the ambient noise from family members still awake, the street noise, and whatever else that jars me from my sleep and annoys me to high heaven…take that back, to no end these things literally tap dance on my nerves. Open or closed the closet could have a killer in it and I simply don’t care, he or she had just better not bother me at this point in my life–and not I’m not afraid.
So jumping back to the beginning of this long story, this wonderful children’s story is near and dear to my heart and I cannot wait to see the motion picture adaptation in October!
-MacDavid
