Crossed eyes: (n) a condition in which one or both eyes turn inward.

Today’s essay is very simple.

Wordings that grownups find clever often terrify children.

Let’s start with:

“Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”

Or:

“I’ll leave the light on in the hallway so the monsters will be scared away.” (What if the bulb burns out?)

Or the one I always hated:

“Don’t cross your eyes like that or make that look. Your face might freeze.”

At this point, the grownup turns his head and giggles.

But terror fills the soul of the young child.

Face freezing—a whole new idea.

Is it possible that this respectable adult is sharing a truth which needs to be harkened to, or one might find oneself going through life becoming the frozen-faced monster, with crossed eyes, that children fear coming in the middle of the night to torture them?

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