Things that Creep you Out

Ah, fear. There are many things that I live in abject fear of, but those things are either too potentially frightening or too abstract to put into words. Therefore, I've compiled a list of things that creep me out, make me upset, cause the diarrhea-is-forthcoming-if-you-don't-solve-this-soon feeling in my stomach.

* Snakes.
My mom told me once that having an aversion to snakes is among the most common and that it's a Biblical thing (or maybe The Bible cashed in on a common aversion to snakes). All I know is, I hate snakes. Hate them. My family was climbing a mountain once and a snake slithered out in front of me. Yeah, totally passed out ...

* Thunderstorms
My hysteria over thunderstorms is actually tied directly to my fear (not aversion, not hysteria, FEAR) of losing control (can't take airplanes, struggle with riding in a car when someone else is driving, et cetera). They are noisy and shake the house. The lightning flashes incessantly. The dogs get scared. The Weather Channel goes crazy with beeping out the warnings and watches and advisories ... and I just quake. I hate thunderstorms. HATE.

* Toenails
All right, this is an odd one, I admit. In fact, I don't think I've heard of anyone else with the capacity to get worked up over toenails. One day when I was a kid, I was climbing up the cement front stairs and I caught a toenail on the cement and it just peeled off (quite painful). I have hated toenails ever since, even getting inexplicably upset when people rub their toenails on the backs of their heels (it makes a horrible sound to my ears) or on something else.

What are some things that creep you out? Where is the line that you draw between "creep out" and "frighten"? I can tell you, if you wanted to drive me insane, wrap a snake around my neck and pluck on my toenails in the middle of a thunderstorm. I assure you, you'd get results. I wouldn't be ... afraid ... exactly, though. It's the distinction between fear and dislike/annoyance that I'm trying to clarify here.

What do you think?

**Happy Easter, by the way. I wrote a fairly meaningful post last Easter ... it's right here, so check it out if you're interested. I just don't have it in me this year, know what I mean?**

So What's with this Rabbit Rising from the Dead?

Socrates said, "As for me, all I know is that I know nothing." I freaking love that guy.

Okay, talking about religion is a very dicey subject. You are more than likely going to offend somebody, no matter what you say. Therefore, I'm going to try to skirt around religious dogma as I try to make a point that really doesn't have a whole lot to do with religion, but I sort of need that example to make sense.

I'm with Socrates. I'm fairly well-educated, I spend an enormous amount of time thinking about various things, I read almost obsessively, and I crave intellectual discourse. However, I've come to the conclusion that the more I allegedly know, the less I'm sure of. It's all about planes of thought and how you're looking at things, and it's kind of frightening how lost you can feel the more you know.

One of my major pet peeves, perhaps as a result, is that I cannot stand people who think they know everything. I cannot understand why some people memorize something they perceive as fact then stick to that same interpretation. It drives me especially crazy when these same people look down on others for not sharing their interpretation.

I'm vocalizing this now because it's occurred to me this weekend how ignorant some professed Christians are about the holiday of Easter. I was raised Roman Catholic and, although I'm no longer practicing (the church and I parted ways over our differing interpretation of Addie's worth considering that she was born out of wedlock), those long hours of CCD from first grade through sophomore year of high school did provide me with a solid base in terms of religious education. Reading the Bible several times on my own and studying various other religions have given me even further knowledge. However, "As for me, all I know is that I know nothing." The concept of God is both reassuring and terrifying, the thought of what's out there--as Stephen King wrote, "There are other worlds than these"--beyond all comprehension, at least as far as I'm concerned.

The first thing that really set my teeth on edge was the realization that many professed Christians are completely clueless as to what Easter is and what it is celebrating. I heard a scary number of people at the store at several points this weekend talking about how Christ was crucified on Easter Sunday. Then there was the conversation about what and why Lent is. I just looked at the crucifixes around their necks and their pro-life bumper stickers and wondered why. It just reminded me that, in my experience, many of the loudest mouthpieces of religion have little to no understanding of the teachings of Christ, the text of the Bible beyond the clergyman's interpretation, or the value of putting it all into perspective.

Then the more obvious irritation, one obviously shared by many, is the whole Easter Bunny thing. I realize that I'm sort of embodying hypocrisy here--Addie and Belle had an Easter basket from the little furry guy at home, had an egg hunt at my mom's house (and more candy than you can imagine in one place), and will be getting further loot from Pythagorus' parents tomorrow--but where the heck did this rabbit thing come from (that's a rhetorical question ... I don't know the answer, actually, but I'm going to look it up in just a minute now that I've piqued my own curiousity ... it doesn't change the point, though)? Is it okay for Americans to take a religious holiday and complete usurp it into a Hallmark haven?

I'm aware that the same could be said for Christmas, although I'm pretty sure that even most children could tell you, "It's Jesus' birthday", which is maybe why I'm all worked up about this Easter ignorance. If kids could say, "It's the day Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven ... and the Easter Bunny comes and gives us lots and lots and lots of candy," I'd find it a little more tolerable.

Am I way out on a limb here?