When I was a kid I was terrified by the movie Ernest Scared Stupid.
For those of you unfamiliar with the 1991 horror/comedy film, check out the following trailer.
The story follows Ernest P. Worrell, a sanitation worker, who must defeat a demonic troll who transforms children into wooden dolls so he can feast on their energy.
When that movie came out, I was 5 years old. To a 5 year old it doesn’t get much scarier than a demonic troll who turns kids into wooden toys. I have vivid memories of being terrified that the troll would sneak up on me in the middle of the night and turn me into a doll.
The other day, my brother and I were talking about that movie so I decided to look up an image of the troll that haunted me for so many years. I cautiously clicked on Google images and closed one eye as I expected to see the spooky troll and immediately fall back into my 5-year-old state of panic.
But a funny thing happened instead.
I saw this picture of the terrifying troll and I couldn’t help but smile.
Look at that guy. He has bad skin, a weak beard and is short and overweight. He is not a terror…he is more like a teenager. A teenager that plays with dolls. What a wimp. Those chubby fingers won’t be giving me nightmares anytime soon.
In the moment, our world can be terrifying. We are so paralyzed by fear that we do not have the ability to step back and see past the scary.
However, as time goes by, things become less scary and more silly.
Remember that presentation you were afraid to give. You thought it would be the death of you. Seems funny now that you breeze though presentations all the time now, doesn’t it.
I won’t be able to convince you (or myself) that things aren’t going to be scary, anymore than I could convince a 5 year old that a demonic troll is not something to fear. But what I can do is say that down the road, our fears won’t seem so bad.
What seems like a monster today might just make you laugh later.