The Crop Duster Who Was Afraid of Heights

Does this picture scare or intimidate you in anyway? No?? Ok, good, you're normal. My brother, however, does not feel the same way.

You see my brother (just like my father was) is terribly afraid of heights! Yes, a man that spend multiple hours a day, IN AN AIRPLANE, IN THE SKY, ABOVE THE EARTH, is scared to stand 3 steps up a ladder without someone holding on to it. Ridiculous

For instance, today he was standing about 4 steps up the wooden ladder that you see pictured above and for a brief second Shawn let go and Matthew wobbled a bit.... Well you would have thought someone was about to strike a match by the fuel tank, because Matthew screamed at the top of his lungs and held onto that ladder like he was going to ride it into his next life!... He recovered 2 seconds later and tried to laugh it off.

His quote after this incident? "I'm just afraid of stupid ladders. Their unreliable... They just suck!" Hahaha!

This got me thinking, is it only ladders that bother him or other levels of height as well??? I started firing away with questions and here are the answer I got... He's definitely afraid of standing on a ladder. He's not afraid of driving over a bridge (as long as its made well) but he wants nothing to do with going over to the ledge of that bridge and looking down. Nor does he want to stop and take a gander at any scenic beauty. He doesn't ever want to walk on a tight rope. He isn't disturbed when he is flying or even when he's flying with someone else. (For a second I thought it may be some sort of control thing) He doesn't want to climb on his roof to clean out the gutters anytime soon. And, he may ride a zip line through the jungle, but probably not... Does that make sense to you?

A a few hours after the ladder incident I asked Matthew again why he thought he may be afraid of heights and he said the following: "Heck Katherine, I don't know, maybe it's genetic. Or maybe something dark and tragic happened in my childhood that has cause me to be afraid of heights and I've just blacked it out. (Geeze, a bit dramatic don't you think?)

I'm obviously no Sigmund Freud and I don't have a hypothesis on fears in adults; but, I'm pretty sure I'm just going to go with the theory that it's genetic. My dad really never could explain his fear of flying and Matthew's not doing that great of a job of it... So let's just say he got it from his Daddy!