From humorist Erma Bombeck comes the following quote from a little boy who was going through a time when life seemed rather scary:
My name is Donald, and I don’t know anything. I have new underwear, but I didn’t sleep last night because I’m worried. I have a loose tooth.
What if a bell rings and a man yells, “Where do you belong?” and I don’t know? What if the trays in the cafeteria are up too high for me to reach? What if my loose tooth comes out in school when we have our heads down and are supposed to be quiet? Am I supposed to bleed quietly? What if I splash water on my name tag and my name disappears and no one knows who I am?
There is more than a kernel of truth in the ancient maxim, “Fear makes men believe the worst.” Obsessive fears can transform benign and even beneficial objects into symbols of deadly terror. Persons…
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