Childhood memories die hard and can affect behaviour, for good or ill, throughout our adult life.
Whenever there was thunder and lightning When I was a boy, my mother sat me at the window to watch in awe and fascination as the thunder sounded in my ears and the sky was rent by the lightning. The fascination was all the greater on dark nights, and my awe knew no bounds as the lightning illuminated the darkness. I’m still fascinated by my childhood memories, still unafraid of the dark, and still see thunder and lightning as one of the greatest free shows on earth.
Whenever there was thunder and lightning when my wife was a girl, she was encouraged to hide under the table in safety and taught to fear the noise and the display of power. On dark nights her fear was heightened at every flash she shrunk from. She is still afraid of thunder and lightning, and still afraid of the dark.
The minds of children are fluid, not literally, but metaphorically. They are molded by the attitudes of parents, sometimes deliberately but often unconsciously. Children pick up and reflect the fears of adults, and those childhood memories die hard. Often, they don’t die at all, and they affect us for a lifetime.
