September 28, 2005

Fall is here.

I feel fortunate that the asylum is located in a part of the U.S. that experiences the full pleasures each season has to offer - the birth of spring, the freedom of summer, the colors of fall, and the fantasy of winter.  The characteristics of each season are so powerful that they even control how we think of the holidays within their borders.  In warm climates, we still think of snow when we dream of Christmas.  In cold climates, we still sense the heat of summer when we visualize colorful fireworks bursting on the 4th of July.  And with Halloween, no matter where we are, we still feel the cold wind twirling the fallen leaves with invisible fingers.

So now fall is once again upon us.  Longer nights are getting colder.  Trees are behaving like artists.  And fear is slowly raising its familiar cloak, setting in motion the anticipation of that special night with children, candy, and costumes.  Along with family and friends, you will shell out several dollars to watch scary movies and enter "haunted houses" in the hopes of being afraid.  If, at the end of your journey, you didn't feel a skip in your heart and a shortness in your lungs, you will feel a different emotion, that of disappointment.  Because you wanted to be afraid.  You paid to be afraid.

Fear comes in two basic forms - instinctive and psychological.  Almost every surviving species today owes a nod of gratitude to instinctive fear.  It serves as a form of preprogrammed intelligence.  Try to step on a snake and the snake will run away.  Likewise, if a snake tries to bite us, we will run away.  Psychological fear, however, is unique to people.  We think of what might happen and we're afraid.  This is the adrenaline rush we experience while standing in line before entering the "haunted house."  Instinctive fear is what we feel once we're inside, when a costumed high schooler jumps out from behind his black spray-painted plywood wall.  What draws us to "haunted houses" and scary movies is the opportunity to experience both types of fear while knowing that, in reality, we're actually completely safe.  "Fun fear."

Here, in the asylum, the idea of "fun fear" has been lost to the patients hidden behind these walls.  Psychology and instincts have spun into one.  Their fears are very real to them, every moment of every day and in every act of their nightly dreams.

Enjoy the season.  Scream with delight.  And end the night with a laugh from the fright.  When you return home to your bed, you'll sleep soundly knowing it was all just pretend.  For you, in the end, it was all

just

pretend.