Tuesday, October 18, 2011

It's not a phobia...

441

A phobia (from the Greek: φόβος, Phóbos, meaning "fear" or "morbid fear") is a type of anxiety disorder, usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer commits to great lengths in avoiding, typically disproportional to the actual danger posed, often being recognized as irrational. In the event the phobia cannot be avoided entirely the sufferer will endure the situation or object with marked distress and significant interference in social or occupational activities.

I have some rules,


principles,


axioms,


sayings, that I (and in fact, everyone) should adhere to and live by...

Here is one of them:

"Glass can cut you"

This is not a phobia. Nor is it an irrational fear.  It is a truth.  Glass can cut you and that would hurt and involve blood.  Therefore; it is only prudent to stay away from glass because glass can cut you.
Why do people get eaten by bears? They don't stay away from them.

Why do people fall into the Grand Canyon? They get too close to the edge.

Why do mom's accidentally drop their babies into the gorilla habitat at the zoo (look it up on youtube)? They get too close.

Why do people get cut by glass....

Some less enlightened and reckless people have tried to challenge my ironclad logic to no avail.

Can't only broken glass cut you?  All glass is pre-broken glass.  There is no glass on the earth that will not, sometime in the future be broken.  And the transition from pre-broken to broken glass is instantaneous.  Therefore I avoid pre-broken glass as often as possible...and it's not a phobia.

Have you had some traumatic experience with getting cut by glass?  I avoid pre-broken glass and stay away from broken glass all together so, no. (Other than having a plate-glass desktop break over my head only to miraculously not slice my ears off...that was my one free pass and I ain't tempting the odds ever again.  And there was the one time Jaron broke a glass globe in our den and as I was taking out the trash a shard of it jammed into my shin sliced my leg open leaving a giant puddle of blood, and there was the one time Asher Morey flung himself through a window at camp and had lots of stitches, and there was the time Jaron put his hand through a window, and there was the time I knelt on a mirror, and like a thousand more times...other than that, no) That's not a phobia.

What is your specific fear? First of all your tone would suggest that it is an "irrational fear" which of course it isn't (see above) but I am avoiding getting cut because getting cut hurts.  But more sinister is that a tiny sliver of glass may work it's way into the bottom of your foot, into your bloodstream and impale your heart causing you to die...(OK that may sound a bit irrational, but technically not numerically impossible.)

What is the most horrifying movie scene ever? When John McLain has to walk barefoot over the broken glass barefoot through that room to get to the other side to save everyone in the first Die Hard movie...did I mention he was barefoot...on broken glass.(I'm getting a little nauseous typing this. And If I had to walk over broken glass to save someone from bank robbers...well...)

So, what your saying, is that you have no irrational fears? Not exactly.  I am irrationally afraid of "spam jelly" (that meat by-product fat jelly stuff that is grown on the plate after you open Spam and leave it in the refrigerator)...that stuff grows, and moves closer to you when you're not looking...that's irrational..and making me a little nauseous as I type this.

Spam Jelly cannot cut you.
Glass, however, can (and eventually will.)

chris

No comments:

Post a Comment