There’s nothing there in the dark that isn’t there in the light.
And if that doesn’t comfort you, keep a flashlight in your pocket.
According to a recent poll, about one-third of all Americans believe in the existence of ghosts, which are, by definition, apparitions of deceased persons encountered in a place they frequented. Now, think about that for a moment. If you are one of those people who believe in ghosts, it’s highly unlikely that an apparition appearing in your dining room or Whirlpool bath wouldn’t be the soul of some dearly departed person you knew. And if it were someone you knew, wouldn’t it be a friendly ghost?
Of course, you can disregard that theory if you routinely invite people you don’t like over for dinner or allow total strangers to use your bathtub, or have had one or more bad experiences with people doing work at your home. I can hear the conversations now:
“Remember Leo, that guy who did a really lousy job of painting our dining room?”
“Yes?”
“He got hit by a car while crossing the street and left paint all over the roadway.”
“Oh, that’s a shame.”
“Yes, and to make matters worse, I think he’s haunting our dining room now.”
“Well, maybe he’ll get the color right this time.”
Anyone who fears things that go bump in the night probably has never heard the space shuttle land at 4 a.m. The first time I heard it I thought we were having a minor earthquake. The sonic boom startled me awake while also rattling the pictures hanging on my walls and glasses in my kitchen cabinets. However, if you suffer from acousticophobia (fear of noise) or ligyrophobia (fear of loud noises), bumpy, noisy, nighttime things probably make your muscles tighten, heart rate and heartbeat increase, and cause beads of perspiration to form on your brow. Have no fear. I read some place that things that go bump in the night really are just sitting around doing nothing in the daytime.
There are some things we ought to be careful of but not fear like lightning and thunder. Lightning is dangerous and potentially lethal, and should be avoided whenever possible, but never feared. When I was a small boy, I used to fear lightning and thunder, until someone told me another old saying: If you saw the lightning, the lightning didn’t hit you. If you heard the thunder, the lightning did hit you.
