Security Blankets

When I was little I had a security blanket. No, I wasn’t as bad as Linus. I didn’t take it everywhere I went. But I did sleep with it and it gave me a great deal of comfort during some really trying times. It was made of flannel, so it deteriorated as the years went by. Toward the end it was barely the size of a hand towel, and a very ragged and tattered hand towel at that. At one point my mother threw it away, but I fished it back out of the trash.

Oddly enough, I can’t really remember that transitional day when it was no longer there. It must have been a blow, or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe I was ready. The memory is lost to me. But the other day I realized that I still have a security blanket of sorts.

I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 3 years old. I can’t wear contacts because I have too many peaks and valleys in my corneas, and while surgery would improve my vision, I’d still need glasses according to the doctor, so what’s the point? So I am a glasses girl. And seriously, I cannot function without them, so they are on, and have been on, every waking moment of my life for the past 45 years.

Not only do I feel blind without my glasses, but I also feel very naked and exposed. I hide behind these glasses. Always have. Always will. There. I admit it.

But I suspect that a lot of people have security blankets of one type or another, whether they know it or not. I can think of several people who would freak right out without their cell phones, or feel incomplete when not wearing a watch, and more than one plumber has been paid a fortune to retrieve a wedding ring from a sink drain. Archie Bunker had his special chair, and Gilligan had his hat.

Not all security blankets are blankets. But what’s wrong with needing a little security in this insecure world of ours?

Author: The View from a Drawbridge

I have been a bridgetender since 2001, and gives me plenty of time to think and observe the world. View all posts by The View from a Drawbridge