Having Your Irrational Fears Validated

Nearly everyone I've ever met has some irrational fears. Most have several. They range from common fears like being afraid of heights (a fear that has a distinct survival advantage) to being afraid that you left the coffee pot on while you're at work.

I've got one about being afraid that I left the garage door open.

Every time I leave the house from the garage, despite watching the door go down right in front of me, by the time I return, I'm nearly always gripped by the fear that I'll see the garage door wide open as I come around the corner.

Because we've got dog doors in the garage, leaving the garage door open means that the dogs aren't confined to the property. Normal experience has shown that leaving the door open for as little as a minute can result in the dogs wandering the street.

It's an irrational fear because hitting that button on the visor and watching the door go down is pretty much as automatic as turning the lights on in a dark room.

Most of the time when you are self-aware about these fears, you can work on a rational override. You can see Bozo the Clown and tell yourself that the clown will not eat you.

That is, until you have your irrational fear validated.

Tonight, after leaving the house for 2 hours to have dinner and hit Target, we pulled into the neighborhood to see the great glowing void of the garage peering out onto the street.

We both turned to each other, dead sure we'd seen the door close when we left. We raced inside, calling out to both dogs. Within seconds we heard the howls of each in turn.

Somehow, they both slept through our entire trip, never the wiser that the great wide open was waiting for them, just through the back door.

It turns out that something had fallen into the beam of the safety laser by the garage door. So, while we watched the door close, when it got to the bottom, it turned itself around and opened back up once we were out of sight.

Unfortunately, now my irrational fear has just been validated. I'm even more likely to believe that I left it open on each trip out. I can only imagine what kind of psychological damage would come from having a bigger irrational fear validated.