Well, here I go again on my own- at least for the next few
days. Joe is off conquering worlds, both
the physical and 8-bit kind, while I am here watching reruns of sitcoms to
quell my fears of being home alone.
And what an ironic turn that the theme of tonight’s
Simpson’s marathon is a collection of "Tree house of Horrors" episodes. Thanks a lot, FXX.
Fear is often at the top of my mind (especially lately…),
but I do try to conquer my fears whenever possible (i.e. I’m forced to).
Take one of my favorite examples.
Back when I was a kid, we went to Disney for a family
vacation. I wasn’t one of the bravest
kids, so I needed to be fully assured that whatever ride we went on wasn’t
going to be in the dark for too long, have scary things pop out, or be terribly
loud. I don’t know how I got talked into
the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, but thankfully the dark and scary parts were
brief and I was rewarded with the animatronic pirates gleefully singing the
song I remembered from my Disney videos.
From there we made our way to the Haunted Mansion ride. I drew the line right then and there. ‘Haunted’ was IN the title. I contently nibbled on some candy with my mom
while my dad and two brave sisters excitedly got on line, telling myself I
wasn’t missing anything. When they got
back, my sister Lindsay couldn’t stop talking about how “cool” that ride was,
and kept trying to talk me into going on it.
I pretended I didn’t care, thought deep down I did. Years later, on a trip with just my sisters
and me, they finally talked me into just getting on line with them for the
Haunted Mansion. I was shaking even as a
teenager, until my sister Hillary pointed out that some 8-year old on the line was
saying how “fun” and “not even scary” the ride was. With a blush of embarrassment on my cheeks I
finally gave up the “ghost” of being afraid of the Haunted Mansion ride, and is
actually now one of my favorites.
The next day, my family and I hit up Epcot Center. I sighed with relief. Epcot is primarily an educational park, which
meant to me, few, if any, thrill rides.
Leave it to Lindsay to find one. As
we made our way through the park and into the semi-circle of World Showcase, we
happened into the Norwegian section and Lindsay spotted something she wanted to
go on.
“Let’s do the Maelstrom ride!” she exclaimed gleefully. I began reading the brief description of the
ride. It read something like, ‘Embark on
a Norwegian adventure aboard a Viking ship, traveling through the dark waters
of the North. But beware the dragon that
crosses your path!’ Hmmm, I thought,
‘dark’, ‘beware’, and ‘dragon’ all sound a little bit too freaky for me. I begged off once again, while Lindsay pulled
my mom and Hillary on the line. My dad
gently encouraged me to go as well, but I couldn’t. I was locked in place with fear.
When they got off, I bombarded my sisters with
questions. Hillary shrugged it off,
saying it was nothing special, but Lindsay, not wanting to waste a chance to
tease me, began describing how the ride got really dark until all of a sudden,
the eye of the dragon opened up and scared everyone. I reasoned that the reality of what the ride
was actually like was probably somewhere in the middle of their two
descriptions. I looked back over my
shoulder as we left, and wondered what the dragon’s eye looked like.
I wouldn’t have my chance to see for myself until almost 20
years later, when Joe and I took a trip to Disney together. We hit each of our favorites rides, but when
we came to Norway in the World Showcase at Epcot, I was once again confronted
with my old fear. I knew logically that Maelstrom couldn’t possibly be scary to someone my age. With some gentle assurance from Joe,
we joined the long line of people while deep down, the little 8-year me began
trembling with fear again.
As we got into our “boat” Joe pointed out something right
away.
“See hun, they don’t even give you actual seat belts for
this thing. That should tell you
something about the ‘thrill’ level of this ride,” Joe chuckled. I began shrinking with humiliation. I watched as infants and the elderly climbed
into their boats and wondered how I could possibly still have a shred of fear
about what this ride would be about. I
was still haunted by the thought of that dragon.
Finally the ride started up.
We gently toggled along in the manufactured river, hearing stories about
Viking myths and legends as the lights dimmed overhead. Suddenly, we approached a wall with a drawing
of a dragon with mechanical eyes. The
narrator said something, and then the eye opened. Just like that. And then we moved on.
That was it. That was
the culmination of 20 years of fear compounded by my overly-active imagination, all for some dusty, old, and faded toy eyes.
I felt like such an idiot.
But at least I conquered that old fear that was still lingering from my
childhood. And it’s a good thing I did
it when I had the chance, since Maelstrom is no longer there, and is instead
being replaced by some new Frozen-themed ride.
It does make me wonder- how will they repurpose that eye?
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