Scared

We finally saw The Hunger Games tonight. We've all read the books, so we basically knew what to expect, but it was still pretty intense. I'm not sure I would have gone to see it when I was Jack's age.

The movie Jaws came out when I was just a little younger than Jack, and I decided that I couldn't bear to watch that. I figured that if I was as freaked out as I was by the picture on the book and the movie posters, I wouldn't be able to handle the movie. It took years for me to swim, even in freshwater lakes, without picturing a gigantic shark coming up from the depths.

I suspect my life long inability to deal rationally with snakes might have roots in watching the 1960 version of Swiss Family Robinson when I was little. Remember the scene in the river when they have to wrestle the gigantic snake? I didn't. When I saw the movie years later I realized I'd completely repressed it.

And I was afraid lepers would sneak into our house at night after watching Ben Hur when I was maybe six or seven. I didn't know what lepers actually were, but I knew people were afraid of them. I finally figured out that if they were going to try to come in my second story bedroom window, they'd have to use a ladder. I'd lay in bed at night listening for the ladder to hit the side of the house so I'd have fair warning.

I don't scare as easily now. But I still covered my eyes a couple of times tonight.