The Importance of Being Scared

Isn't it fun to be a little scared sometimes?  That's our motto around here.  Fear is fun, especially when you know nothing can really hurt you.  I've been going through some important changes in my life lately and, with those changes, I've been thinking a lot about fear.  After all, change can be scary.  We, as humans, tend to be drawn more toward stability.  Why else do you think people freak out if a series they like is changing in any way?  But I digress.  This article isn't about change.  It's about fear.

My reaction when I heard that a Beetlejuice 2 might happen.

The Spooky Old House On the Hill

Many simple pleasures have been destroyed due to the arrival of better technologies: letter-writing, playing outside, all-day cooking. It was less than 20 years ago that the only way to find answers to questions both crucial and trivial was to read a book. Now, it takes approximately 3 seconds to pull things up on Google. Thanks to iPhones, people are connected 24/7. Nothing takes effort anymore. Video and computer games keep children inside with a mountain of junk food. At least when we burned our brains on cartoons Saturday morning, they were usually done by noon, at which point my mother would shoo me into the Great Outdoors to play, discover, and yes, learn. The pre-internet and cell phone years had their problems, sure, but things definitely seemed more idyllic.

Now, one could blame all of this on nostalgia, the fact that being children made us less aware of society's issues, and any other number of things. And to a point that's true. I certainly didn't know what a recession meant when I was 10, nor did I care. I just knew that the weekend was mine, and my buddies and I were going to discover hidden treasure like in The Goonies.