The Darkness That Envelops Us

I'm just going to throw this out there in recognition of my genious, but that title is fantastic. I'm really happy with it. Well anyway...onto the point. I was out chasing one of our family dogs, Lady, around the yard tonight in order to provide my sleep deprived parents with a few hours of extra sleep. You see, Lady is an outdoorsy dog, she loves being outside and loves the cold weather almost as much. When it gets cold outside, she decides that maybe it would be enjoyable to stay outside all night...my parents disagree. She barks, alot...which leads to Max barking, which leads to my parents not sleeping. This effects me in the way that when my parents don't sleep, they become grouchy and angry people...and therefore don't give me the care, love, and affection that I require from day to day. (I'm totally joking, my parents are great and are rarely grouchy) So anyway where was I? Me chasing Lady around in the dark...cold...fun...okay I'm back. As I was running around the yard chasing after a dog that is immensely faster than I am, I heard coyotes from over the berm and I thought to myself how cool it would be to go and find them. So me and my little mag-light journeyed over the berm and into an even darker area. As I was looking around, it hit me, its dark...scary...and so many movies have similar situations of somebody alone in the dark...I did not want to be that person. I'll add that it was quiet, too quiet. I quickly addressed the situation and turned on music from my phone. (Additional thanks to the shins for providing comfort in my time of need) As I stood there...alone in the dark...in the cold...nothing making a sound except for my phone...I had a deep convorsation with myself. Why are we afraid of the dark? What is it about this simple "absence of light" that can make a person afraid beyond measure? I came to the conclusion that it scares me because I can't see anything. The darkness seems infinite. Anything could be lurking in the darkness and I would not be able to see it. Darkness makes people feel alone, silence only adds to it. We become more aware of ourselves and everything around us. This extra attentiveness seems to make our imaginations run wild! What would sound like a tree any other time, may sound like a person creeping up behind us when we are in darkness. I heard a creaking sound behind me and I whipped around with my flashlight only to be staring at a tree...luckily I saw it before it got me! Those trees get sneakier everyday. Honestly though, I think it comes down to the lack of knowledge, the lack of the comfort of fact. We do NOT know what we cannot see. We do NOT know that nothing is out there, but simply linger on the hope that there is nothing out there. In the modern world, we as humans are terrified of lack of knowledge. We think Iran wants to use nuclear weapons against us but we do not know. We think that there is a terrorist attack planned but we do not know. We think that the stock market is going to plummet but we do not know. We think that our friend is lying to us but we do not know. That terrifies us! We are so needy! We need to know these things for our own comfort and will sometimes do absolutely anything for comfort and just so that we can sleep at night. I'm not saying that I don't do this, lack of knowledge does scare me. I recognize that. We can't let this lack of knowledge own our lives. We can't fear the darkness that envelops us.