I've had a snake phobia all my life. I don't know how to explain phobias, given their irrational nature. Phobias weren't meant to be rationalized, were they? It makes perfect sense that a good number of the people on the planet at any given time are really, really scared of slithering, limbless reptiles that can move really, really fast and scare the hell out of me just like that with the whip of their tail. And most of them don't even give a warning! In the reptilian world of Beauty Contests, the rattlesnake would snag the Miss Congeniality prize everytime for the simple truth that she has the decency to let you know that she's THERE!
I'm curious about the demographics of snake phobia. On an evolutionary level it made sense to avoid them and like, not make your bed in a nest of them, but they are accustomed to lying, coiled and immobile so as not to be detected. Snakes are silent observers and it's not like they enjoy the company of humans, or any other species for that matter. Snakes are very solitary creatures that hang out in the sun trying to stay warm from what I can tell.
Early on in my Virginia residency, I read an article of a girl in Chesapeake who was bitten on the neck by a snake with fangs of some sort. As I recall the story, which was published in the Virginian Pilot Ledger Star back in 80's, the girl was riding her bike and must have run over it, but by some freak accident the snake went flying in the air, landed around her neck and bit her. I'm not making this up! I wish to hell I was making it up because , THAT particular image is certainly the Mother of the Ophidiophobe Nightmare!
My fourteen year old, Jesse has been telling me about Hera, the 8th grade Biology teacher's ALBINO CORN SNAKE, since school started in Aug. I've always loved Biology teachers and have great respect for the women who have snakes as pets. My friend Marge, twenty years ago, had me work on my Ophidiophobia by hanging out in the same room with her boa, Squeeze, first with him IN his tank/home and finally, after any number of bong hits and who knows how much vodka, out of his tank. I'd be sitting on the sofa, look over at the rubber tree plant and there was a green boa, tongue darting and inching toward my ear. If you don't think that every muscle in my body was contracted, then you are out of your mind. Once, I even managed to hold that snake but NEVER did I feel safe or relaxed. I did learn though that it's true what they say:
Snakes are not wet, cold or slimy but soft, supple, warm and dry.
I was at Jesse's school the other day and the math teacher, Deb Miflin, took me into see Hera, the biology teacher's beloved albino Corn Snake. (I have come to appreciate constrictors...I like the green ones especially...the black and brown snakes? Not for me! and to people like me, Steve Irwin was just a big SNAKE HANDLING SHOW OFF! ) While Ms. Mifflin lifted Hera out of her tank, she told me how in assembly that morning, she was "wearing" Hera under her clothes because Hera's warming light had burned out overnight and she was cold. Hera, not Debbie. Debbie was trying to be cool and discreet in the assembly, keeping Hera inside her clothes so as not to freak out all the little Ophidiophobes in the room, but at one point Hera rose up out from behind Ms. Mifflin's head and oh my god, can you imagine the response? MS. MIFFLIN!!! THERE'S A SNAKE IN YOUR HAIR!!
So, Debbie, this amazing spirit of an angel-woman-math-teacher-extraordinaire, reaches into the tank and pulls Hera out and just offers her to me. I love Debbie because it didn't occur to her that holding a tame snake was something I wouldn't do for whatever irrational reason I might have. And I was proud of me for not getting into the drama of my phobia. Here I was being presented with an opportunity to GET OVER a fear I'd carried with me from the womb. So, I sat down, and reached out my hands to accept this gift that I was being given. I call it a gift because until recently, I wasn't always awake enough to hear the call of those fear based opportunities to be re-created into new realities.
Now, if you know anything about me, you should know that I am heart led on this spiritual path, so the next thing I know, I'm falling in love with this beautiful, mysterious animal who is wrapping herself around me, seeking my warmth and comfort; moving effortlessly, sliding, worming her way into my vest, out the armhole. Debbie and Hera have become such heroes to me! She was the perfect snake to experience without fear and Debbie knew that. There was nothing TO fear, for Hera is a gentle, living, breathing, silky smooth mass of cells, just like me: just warmth and firm muscle moving over my mass of skin cells, with all their millions of nerves that have never known the pleasurable touch, til now, of silky scales sliding, wrapping, enveloping and recreating a new version of a timeless, sacred sensation, a new version of communing with one of God's OTHER creatures.
Thank you Hera, Thank You Debbie!
For this I am very Grateful!
Connie
My fourteen year old, Jesse has been telling me about Hera, the 8th grade Biology teacher's ALBINO CORN SNAKE, since school started in Aug. I've always loved Biology teachers and have great respect for the women who have snakes as pets. My friend Marge, twenty years ago, had me work on my Ophidiophobia by hanging out in the same room with her boa, Squeeze, first with him IN his tank/home and finally, after any number of bong hits and who knows how much vodka, out of his tank. I'd be sitting on the sofa, look over at the rubber tree plant and there was a green boa, tongue darting and inching toward my ear. If you don't think that every muscle in my body was contracted, then you are out of your mind. Once, I even managed to hold that snake but NEVER did I feel safe or relaxed. I did learn though that it's true what they say:
Snakes are not wet, cold or slimy but soft, supple, warm and dry.
I was at Jesse's school the other day and the math teacher, Deb Miflin, took me into see Hera, the biology teacher's beloved albino Corn Snake. (I have come to appreciate constrictors...I like the green ones especially...the black and brown snakes? Not for me! and to people like me, Steve Irwin was just a big SNAKE HANDLING SHOW OFF! ) While Ms. Mifflin lifted Hera out of her tank, she told me how in assembly that morning, she was "wearing" Hera under her clothes because Hera's warming light had burned out overnight and she was cold. Hera, not Debbie. Debbie was trying to be cool and discreet in the assembly, keeping Hera inside her clothes so as not to freak out all the little Ophidiophobes in the room, but at one point Hera rose up out from behind Ms. Mifflin's head and oh my god, can you imagine the response? MS. MIFFLIN!!! THERE'S A SNAKE IN YOUR HAIR!!
So, Debbie, this amazing spirit of an angel-woman-math-teacher-extraordinaire, reaches into the tank and pulls Hera out and just offers her to me. I love Debbie because it didn't occur to her that holding a tame snake was something I wouldn't do for whatever irrational reason I might have. And I was proud of me for not getting into the drama of my phobia. Here I was being presented with an opportunity to GET OVER a fear I'd carried with me from the womb. So, I sat down, and reached out my hands to accept this gift that I was being given. I call it a gift because until recently, I wasn't always awake enough to hear the call of those fear based opportunities to be re-created into new realities.
Now, if you know anything about me, you should know that I am heart led on this spiritual path, so the next thing I know, I'm falling in love with this beautiful, mysterious animal who is wrapping herself around me, seeking my warmth and comfort; moving effortlessly, sliding, worming her way into my vest, out the armhole. Debbie and Hera have become such heroes to me! She was the perfect snake to experience without fear and Debbie knew that. There was nothing TO fear, for Hera is a gentle, living, breathing, silky smooth mass of cells, just like me: just warmth and firm muscle moving over my mass of skin cells, with all their millions of nerves that have never known the pleasurable touch, til now, of silky scales sliding, wrapping, enveloping and recreating a new version of a timeless, sacred sensation, a new version of communing with one of God's OTHER creatures.
Thank you Hera, Thank You Debbie!
For this I am very Grateful!
Connie
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