Update: The Daisy Staring in My Window

My daughter hung a big metal daisy over the front door window. She didn’t tell me.

Me: (Shriek!) …”Oh, it’s a daisy. Why is a freaking daisy hanging in the window?”

Daughter: “Hahaha. So nobody can stand on the porch and stare inside.”

Me: “But I thought it WAS somebody standing on the porch staring inside.”

Daughter: “Nope, just a daisy.”

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O.K., no big deal. I can adjust. The second and third times it scared me, I even thought it was kind of funny. The nineteenth time it scared me (yes, I was counting) I began to wonder what was wrong with my habituation mechanism; that is, the psychological mechanism by which we get used to stuff and begin to ignore it. Of course, everybody else thinks my startle reflex is hilarious.

Just now the daisy scared me for the forty-third time. My Grandma used to say we can get used to anything, that we “can get used to hanging if we hang long enough.” But not, apparently, to a daisy staring in the window.

And really, what could be LESS threatening than a daisy?

That’s what I tell myself. But from deep in my brain comes another question: What could be more threatening than someone staring in your window? Imagine that for a moment-especially at night! Pretty scary, right?

I always try to overcome my irrational fears, so I’m going to go look at the darn thing and repeat, “It is just a daisy.” Maybe I will repeat it forty-three times.

If that doesn’t work, I’m throwing the darn thing out.

…………………………………………………………………………………….

Following Day: The daisy scared me again.

Me: That’s it-the daisy has to go!

Daughter: No, there is a Fred using it.

Sure enough, a tiny green tree frog, which for some reason lost in the mists of time, we call “Freds” is sheltering between the daisy and the glass. I cannot destroy his habitat. Daughter wins. 🙂