When it comes to fears, I've got all your regular bases covered. Spiders, heights, kidnappers, serial killers, drowning in the ocean and being eaten by some unknown sea urchin. You know, the usual. All things that are real and feasible and fears that other people could share. But then there are my other fears. The ones that are oddly specific and 99% unlikely. The ones that I heard mentioned in passing and that I now obsess over as I fall asleep. Unlikely? Yes. Possible? Also yes.
For one, I have been informed (years ago - I've been worrying about this since high school) that if you look at the sun through binoculars at noon you will go blind. I realize this seems extreme and while I have never even googled this to see if it's true, I choose to live in fear of the possibility. Sure, I don't think I've ever looked through binoculars in my life, let alone straight up at the sky in the middle of the day, but it could totally happen. What if I took up a career in bird watching (can you do that for a career?) and I had just spotted a very rare and beautiful bird and, as I'm following it's flight path with my binoculars, BAM! Sun! I'm blind! I guess I just don't feel like this is publicized enough. If I had it my way all news sources would send out a weekly reminder not to look at the sun at noon through binoculars. We have to keep our citizens safe. I mean look at that kid! He's looking straight up! It's clearly day time! There is no way he knows the danger he is in.
Secondly, a few years ago a coworker informed me that, if you are walking in a straight line without any point on the horizon to follow, your brain will play tricks on you and you'll actually be walking in circles. Ok, but when would this ever be your reality? Oh, I don't know, maybe if you were riding camels in the desert and your camel went rogue and left you stranded and you were trying to walk to safety but there was nothing around but sand so you were just walking in circles. I have to wonder if maybe you could throw a stick or rock a few yards in front of you, then walk to it and throw it again, would that count as something on the horizon? Or would you actually be throwing it in circles?! The possibilities are endless and terrifying. It doesn't help that at the time I heard this I was reading Stolen, a book about a girl who is kidnapped and brought to the Australian desert. Poor girl could never have escaped. She would have walked herself to death, going in circles the whole time.
So, fess up. What about you? I know you have an irrational fear or two, so let's hear 'em!
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