Embracing Your Fears... And Yip Yips.

Literally, in my case.

When I was five, my biggest fear was the Sesame Street Yip Yips.

I know.  I know.

Here's the funny part; I was scared of them because they appeared out of nowhere, being all loud and obnoxious, bouncing all over Creation...  hmm..  Does this sound like anyone we know?  Mandi Freakin' Pope. 

These bouncy bastards traumatized me in my youth.  However, today, at (as of 06.06.15 edit) thirty-two, these guys are my homeboys.  I think there's a commentary in here somewhere about the nature of fear, facing it and how fear transforms into laughter, but I'm far too lazy to look into it.  But trust me, it's most likely there.

I don't know when, why, how or where, but one day, I just wasn't afraid of them anymore...  which is good, because fearing a bunch of alien puppets at age thirty-two is a little too neurotic even for the likes of Mandi L. Pope.

But my point, and I do have one, is don't be afraid to confront what you're afraid of.  Half of the time, what you're afraid of ...  amounts to nothing.  Or a puppet, in my case.

Here's me, drawn by me, taking art therapy to the fullest, giving a hug (read: a strangle) to one of those darling little loud, obnoxious, bouncy Yip Yips.

So let go of your fears!

And, Mandi?  Let go of the Yip Yip while you're at it.  I'm not so damned sure he can breathe.

Yip yip yip!  Unh huh, unh huh, yip yip yip yip!

Art by Mandi L. Pope.

The Yip Yips belong to The Children's Television Workshop.
Artist's Note:  I didn't make a word of this up; I WAS traumatized by the Yip Yips as a wee thing, so much so that I even saw these horrendous puppet beasts in my most terrifying nightmares.  Though I am unaffected by it today, when it went through my subconscious mind at the time at age four or five, the nightmare I had with the Yip Yips involved was THE most horrifying nightmare I ever remember having in my life.  (I could hear the Yip Yips yipping in the nightmare, but couldn't see them, and they were yipping all around me, they had me completely surrounded, it was God awful at the time.  Now, if that dream replayed itself at age thirty-two, I'd be all, "where you guys at!?  Let's hang out!  Don't hide from me, I just wanna party and yip with you!"

And if you want to know my GREATEST dream, it was one I had a few months back in the spring of 2015, I went back in time and got to hold my beloved Puppetcancer as a baby, and dang, was he cute!   (You were a beautiful baby, John, 'cause Baby, lookit you NOW!)