It’s Behind You

Since it is getting into that spooky season, it’s time to curl up, dim the lights and get scared. At the end of the evening, the lights can brighten and you can laugh it all off (unless you have a heart attack and die).

So what is the scariest? Monsters? Vampires? Zombies? Ballerinas? What about Dentist? Taxman? Mother-in-law?

Stand and talk to someone when all of a sudden their eyes get wide seeing something that is behind you that you can’t see until you stop and turn around.

What goes on behind us is our vulnerable place. Our heads only swivel 90 degrees, so to see what is behind us, we have to turn our body around.

If you get a tattoo on your back you will never see it except in a photograph. If you have a scratch you can’t reach it. If you have a pain in your back only someone else can rub it.

Think about walking. Our eyes are placed so we look ahead. We can tilt our head to look up or down but we can’t see behind us. If we walk through a crowd of people we cannot know what their reaction is behind us.

There are mirrors on cars to show us that tractor-trailer zooming up to our bumper or to check the kids in the back seat with limited visibility.

Maybe once we pass by, we shouldn’t care. It is history.

The same is true for our memories.

We have photos and writings and books and movies and scraps of clothing that remind us of yesterday, but that is all behind us.

We look forward to our future, like our eyes. We can’t go back.

When what is behind is more than what is ahead? Now that is scary.

Boo!