July 10th, 1978: Miseries, Day Terrors, and Witches.

Petey had a bad attack of the miseries this afternoon.  For once, we had no company, and he was out on the front lawn playing "space" with his fort made of two cardboard boxes, his shoebox lid controls, and his space guns.  Suddenly he ran into the house, and burst into the kitchen crying.  I asked him if he'd hurt himself, but he said no, he didn't hurt anywhere, and he didn't know why he was crying.  I asked him if he were lonely, or if something happened to frighten him, but he just cried more.  I held him on my lap and hugged him and kissed him on his neck-first below his chin where it tickles, and told him I loved him, and finally he stopped crying and seemed perfectly happy again, but I still don't know why he was crying and neither does he.

I've heard of night terrors-Pete has them sometimes, tho' not so often now as before-but I've never heard of a child having day terrors before.  It's like the time he lost his memory of an hour and inexplicably forgot we'd had dinner (his favorite-fried chicken-at that).

Tonight I read Pete The Girl& The Goatherd or This and That, Thus and So.  The girl goes to work for a witch to become beautiful, and then doesn't like it.  I told Peter I'd better go to work for the witch, and he said "No, don't do it, you're too beautiful!-she'd make you ugly.  Please don't go to work for any witch, mommy!"  I promised I wouldn't, and thanked Pete for the compliment.  

I didn't tell him there aren't any witches, because of course, there are.  Just look what a following Sybil Leek has...and when I lived in San Francisco, I saw Anton LaVey out riding, with his pet lion in the back of the car.  I am afraid as many people celebrate the Black Mass now as did in the Middle Ages.  

There will always be people seeking an easy road to power or beauty or wealth.  Our only only mistake is in ignoring them or laughing them off.  The love of evil for it's own sake is dangerous (as King James remarked before me).  Whether spells and incantations really work is immaterial, it's the wish to do evil which can always be gratified, that makes the Satanists formidable.