Kiteophobia

I have it. Kite-oh-phobia. The fear of kites.

Laugh if you must, but I have it.

And I did think it was pretty weird. And so did Tim. But it became less, or more...depending how one looks at it...when we heard CJ mention that she's also scared of kites.

It wasn't like this was a known bit of info in our household. When CJ was quite young, Tim thought it would be fun for her to fly a kite. I mentioned nothing to CJ, as not to make kite-flying scary to her as it was for me. She didn't say much about the event but years later, she mentioned to us that it made her feel scared to fly kites. Tim gave me the bug-eyed look, like 'how can that possibly inherited?'

But it is and CJ and I are not the only ones.

I've mentioned before that I often read the Mental Floss feeds. Today I read about unusual phobias. And while the article does not state anything about the fear of kites (as I had hoped), I considered e-mailing them to tell them about mine and CJ's.

But lo and behold, as I start reading the first comment to the article, I noticed that one of the readers had the fear of flying kites! I was instantly connected to a stranger and to me, this validates that there *is* some odd sense in some of us, to the fear of flying kites. Mine includes seeing others flying kites.

The stranger-I-connect with states his fear was being whisked away with the kite. Mine is not so much that, but just the awe (in a scary way) of it being so far up in the sky. It's the same way that I feel about others flying theirs...and it might have something to do with how I am scared of my balloon flying away. Okay, I don't have balloons anymore but if I _did_, I would be afraid of letting it go and would have a death grip on the string.

With a kite, however, I refuse to hold one or be near one. If I am too close to someone flying one, I have to not look at it.

I tried to find out if this was an actual condition...an actual named phobia, but I didn't find it. And even under the unusual phobia website, with 'made up' phobias, there is no indication that anyone else, except me, CJ and "Witty Nickname", are afflicted with this condition.

BTW, I do have an actual phobia, Acrophobia - an irrational fear of heights. Mine is not too irrational, but it is pretty strong. I remember riding the ferris wheel, as I did every year, at the HOG (happening on the green) one year at Clark AFB in the Philippines. As the ride went up for the first time, I had an instant feeling of fright and crouched onto the floor. I remember not even planning for it -- it just happened. I've never ridden a ferris wheel since.

And once in high school, friends and I were climbing up to a platform that goes to a small water tower. I got to the top of the platform and instantly crouched to the ground, frozen. It seems that I forget, or give into peer pressure and find myself in these situations.

My last house, I had to really concentrate on my steps. I had 13 steps. I could care less that the number was unlucky...it was the steepness of it all that freaked me out and I lived with those steps for 10 years!

Some people think I should cure this fear. I ask those people "Why?" What would make life better for me to NOT be scared of heights? I can go up stairs -- if they are not in an open area...and no one rushes me from behind (in that case, I just stop and tell them to pass me). I can even ride roller coasters. I can fly in a plane. Nothing irrational about that. But as soon as I'm on top of some place, looking into the vastness, I get a little queasy, my breath stops, and if I don't concentrate really hard on not panicking, I'll crouch to the ground and become frozen in place.

I'm okay with just avoiding those situations. I'm happy living with my acrophobia...and my kiteophobia.