The Monster in the Closet

Many young children develop a fear of monsters.

The monsters are always close to them - they are in the closet, or under the bed, or hiding in the dresser drawer. Perhaps they are under the stairs. They live just out of sight, in the hidden places of the house, waiting until the lights go out.

When the lights go out and the darkness closes in, the monsters will get you.

Parental assurance that there are no such monsters does no good. 'Please check' they ask. The closet must be opened, the bed must be looked under, before the child will accept that there are no monsters there... at least tonight. Monsters even have their own rules - sometimes the closet must be left open, to prevent monsters from hiding in it. Other times the closet must be left closed, to keep any monsters who appear inside it from coming out. Seldom do the monsters ever have terribly imaginative qualities - the monsters are usually not invisible or intangible, but they are merely hiding, and would indeed prove to be visible if we could catch one in the open. That is why the child is safe when the lights are on and no monsters can be seen.

Confident that the child's belief in monsters will eventually pass, parents indulge their children. Closets are left open or shut, beds are checked, and nightlights are purchased to keep the darkness at bay. We do it all to assuage the child's fear, for while we are confident that there are no monsters, we know that their fear is real and that it torments them. Kids are not lying when they tell us about the monsters - their fears and their beliefs are genuine. After a glimpse of motion outside the window, or waking from a terrifying dream, they may even be convinced that they have seen the monster that was moments away from getting them.

Children do eventually stop believing in such things, and they grow into adults. But what if adults still believed in monsters? What if the rules given to the monsters made it so that the act of simply illuminating the area provided no protection - now the monster is invisible. Now the monster is intangible. Now the monster can be everywhere at once. Now the monster is believed in by a majority of people, and instead of dissuading their children of the belief in this monster, it is encouraged and reinforced. People will not simply grow out of their belief in such a monster, and turning on the lights and showing a room devoid of monsters does nothing to convince believers that they are safe, even for a moment. The rules even include a self-reinforcing nature - because it is no longer a matter of light and dark that determines when the monster gets you.

Now? If you don't believe in the monster, it will get you.


I don't believe in monsters. I'm beginning this blog as an attempt to light a metaphorical candle, and be one among many such monster-deniers that can reassure my fellow humans that there are no monsters in the closet, under the bed, in the sky, or everywhere at once.