ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK? AN APPALACHIAN ANECDOTE.
I’ll admit to being afraid of the dark. I don’t believe that I have an unhealthy fear. It doesn’t really affect my life and the older that I’ve gotten I think I’ve learned to embrace the darkness. But I’ve never really felt comfortable in being unable to see my surroundings. There are important differences between being inside or outside, and in familiar locations versus unfamiliar. The worst place to be in the dark must be outside. I’ll go a step further and say that being outside in the woods is the worst. There is a 100% probability that there is something else out there in the dark with you. Sometimes that “something else” might be what you least expect, and sometimes, the things that “go bump in the night” stay with you, burned in your memory forever. Many years ago, I found myself in the dark, outside in the West Virginian mountains, early in the morning and alone. At this time in my life, I was working in the oil & gas industry, specifically methane gas wells in West...