Dear Reader:

You will be quite proud of me ( I am! Whew!!!) for having gotten almost halfway through Hamilton. (“If I were a rich man”….surely two hours of the Broadway play would be a lot easier on the eyes and brain.) I have a list of words that I have had to look up for each meaning on a sheet of paper that grows longer each day.

In spite of the obstacles I am still finding the biography fascinating…once again showing how complex human nature is. When I came across the word bugaboo.…it was used to describe one of the major problems in establishing a new constitution to replace the weak Articles of Confederation.

Hamilton, an abolitionist opposed to slavery admits that “the issue of slavery (in the southern states) is such a bugaboo that it might likely be the loggerhead in the failure of an enduring Constitution for future generations.”  

When I looked up the term, bugaboo, this is what I found:

1.	bugaboo – an imaginary monster used to frighten children from Celtic origin referring to the devil. bogeyman, bugbear monster  (an imaginary creature usually having various human and animal parts)
	2.	bugaboo – a source of concern; “the old bugaboo of inflation still bothers them” headache, worry, vexation, concern – something or someone that causes anxiety; a source of unhappiness;

The idea of the term bugaboo also refers to: something that causes fear or distress out of proportion to its importance

As a child the real bugaboo at night, when we just knew something creepy was lying in wait under the bed (so you never, ever let your arms dangle over the side) was our imagination. The scary monster under the bed or in the closet was completely out of proportion to reality but certainly forefront in a child’s imaginative fantasy.

I must admit, however, that some nights I make sure my arms still don’t dangle over the sides (one can never be too cautious.) My bugaboos appear around 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. If I happen to wake up during that “bewitching time” ordinary problems suddenly turn into big creepy monsters which surely in time will consume me.

My biggest bugaboo falls  in the financial arena. Looking back on my education, I do think the required curriculum failed me by not offering a course in every day financial economics. Because all I have to hear are terms like:refinance, equity line, roll over, tax forms, annuities, pre-planning funeral arrangements and my mouth goes dry.

The hairy monster in the closet is covered in green bills and is demanding more bills (from me) be placed on him. Now! By the next morning, with the sun’s rays pouring into the room, I shake my head in disbelief that I let myself get taken in again by that old financial bugaboo.

In reality I am pretty much on top of things and have a plan that I am following with lots of good advisers to help me. My fear is definitely out of proportion when the nightly bugaboo returns in random intervals. It seems to know my weak spot and attacks it every time.

My other bugaboo, of late, has been “quenched” as I am watching the glorious rain fall down in my yard….I can practically see all the flowers turning their faces upward to the heavens to drink gustily from the much-needed rain.

No matter our ages….don’t we all have our bugaboos lying in wait to pounce on us when we are down and out? They can be social/relationship issues, money matters, medical decisions, job problems, etc. When the bugaboos come…we must remember to take charge and bring them back down to their right proportion and size –  diminutive…….exactly where they belong.

So until tomorrow…Let’s keep our bugaboos locked up in the closet or squished under the bed….they are not real…. God is always in charge of our lives…not the bugaboos. Cast them out!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* If we need any extra help casting out bugaboos ….we can always use the monster swatters to swat them away.