Maybe you were like me and lost a pet when you were young. If so, I hope you were luckier than me and didn't happen to see them afterward. Nothing can affect a child like seeing a beloved animal (or person, for that matter) mangled and lifeless on the ground. The details of my cat's death when I was 10 are a little too graphic to discuss here, but it was enough to put me off any movies involving gore or even looking at roadkill the rest of my life. My poor kitty... how do you forget seeing something like that?
The truth is, the best way to overcome a bad memory is to accept it as reality, and then the ordinariness of it. This sounds kind of heartless. Why would I want to think of my pet's death as "ordinary"? But actually, it helps. Our modern world is filled with images of death, and though we can never totally block out something horrible we witnessed at a young age, we can learn to accept it as a part of life. By doing so, I'm able to think about my cat less often and continue moving onward.
