06 NIGHTMARE

Hush, little baby, don't say a word And never mind that noise you heard It's just the beast under your bed In your closet, in your head

― Metallica, Enter Sandman

The nightmare under your bed is very much real.

Except, the nightmare isn’t under your bed. Nor is the nightmare in your closet. Metallica said it succinctly: “it’s just the beast … in your head.” Though, the nightmare isn’t quite in your head either, is it? It’s there that you may experience the nightmare. But the nightmare isn’t in your head.

The nightmare lurks in the shadows of your heart. The nightmare hides in the chaos of your soul. This could be a monster; this could be the unknown.

But rather than acknowledge that the nightmare lies within, you project the nightmare outside of yourself. You make it tangible in ways that are easier for you to accept.

The monster under your bed. In your closet. Under the stairs.

However, no matter where you place the nightmare, the fear you feel of the nightmare is very much real. As you grow, you learn to supplant that fear, shift it to other outlets, other expressions.

Other projections.

We’re not afraid of the dark because that’s where monsters lie. It’s the darkness within ourselves that we fear to acknowledge, projecting that fear instead into external spaces and onto other people.

We’re afraid of the dark because we project our own monstrousness into it.

ABOUT THE COLLAGE

You can collect this nightmare here. This piece was composed from these two images:

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Photo by Nick Jones on Unsplash