"El cuco..." calls for "the Sandman"...to no avail: it has to be faced

When thinking back these days of my years as a child, I re-member vividly the long nights when "el cuco" had become present in a freakish nightmare, one that would not go away easily. I was so scared I could not utter a word, a cry for help. This suppression, that holding back of a possible saving yell that was welling inside of me but could not trumpet itself out for fear of calling the 'cuco's' wrath upon myself -  got me to perspire a clammy sweat that clung to my face, chest and back, inside the mosquito net that prevented any movement, holding me 'put' in place at the mercy of the moment. Uuuuff!

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_(folclore)

Its memory brings back the sweat if I let it. Scary.

For more on "el cuco" check out this wiki page, referencing the fictitious (for real?) creature of Spain and Hispanic America ~ Latino America - but including Brazil, and the Caribbean, of course. It is easy to relate to were one to think of the Halloween custom of carving eyes, mouth, a grin or smile on a pumpkin. Think of a creature with that pumpkin as a head, embellish it with a hood, and you may approximate a version of "el cuco".  The name may have originated as "el coco" - a coconut - given its 3 indentations at its base, forming some sort of a facial imagery.

On another perspective, one has to be grateful for Hans Christian Andersen's introduction of an antithesis, if you will. "...In 1841, the folk tale Ole Lukøje introduced the Sandman, named Ole Lukøje. ...Ole" is a Danish name and "Lukøje" means 'close eye' '. When I came across this, what a surprise! HCA's "Sandman" is the opposite, a hero that banishes any occurrence of monsters in a child's dream life. "But Ole-Luk-Oie does not wish to hurt them, for he is very fond of children, and only wants them to be quiet that he may relate to them pretty stories, and they never are quiet until they are in bed and asleep. As soon as they are asleep, Ole-Luk-Oie seats himself upon the bed. He is nicely dressed; his coat is made of silken fabric; it is impossible to say of what color, for it changes from green to red, and from red to blue as he turns from side to side. Under each arm he carries an umbrella; one of them, with pictures on the inside, he spreads over the good children, and then they dream the most beautiful stories the whole night."

 Oh, so beautiful! - all those Andersen's stories, again!

http://bit.ly/2hxYl56

Note that in a sense, per this description, Andersen creates a setting where nightmares do not happen. It is anticipatory of them, and thus does not allow them 'to be'. Even in the case of "naughty-behavior" children, the worst is that they do not dream. They enjoy no-dream life, that is.  Which reminds me of Rosalind Cartwright's work on sleep and its beneficial aspects for the psyche, and to life. Dreams. Interesting paths' crossing! Per Andersen, children are rewarded with dreams - beautiful as can be. "...the whole night"...i.e, no interruptions in sleep, pleasant, attractive, restorative. And the 'not so well behaved kids', do not get nightmares, they are 'disciplined' by having the rest, the hours of sleep, but with no dreams at all. A metaphor - for me - of a 'bland, soft, listless, flat' sleep experience as penance - "just nothing happening here" - without the horrors of "el cuco". The "kindness of the universe", of life, rather than the retributive character of extremist, puritanical aspects of Christianity, comes across.

And then! the daily morning reading brings it all back! Nepo quotes Carl Jung: "One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious".
...
Ahhh?
...
It is saying..."face your 'cucos' "Ahhh??? You want me to dig in there and go thru those nightmares - and day-mares, gulp! - again? [Nepo]: "carrying the lantern of our spirit before us (?), we must enter the darkness of our troubles if we are to drink clearly again from the source". ...Adds: "Yet, as a headlight grows filmed by driving through all kinds of weather, [the gift by which we perceive gets covered by experience, ] and our ability to see is diminished until we clean the gift. 

So, as I add experience, and individual, constant, experience-s, my perception (the gift) gets clouded, "filmed", and I do not get to 'see' what is really going on, so that the more I live, the less I 'see'...unless...!...

[Nepo]..."This is a lifelong process, one that never ends, but always begins. ...So the care of one's being is imperative and continuous (nice!), (but, aghhh!) as simple and hard as wiping the residue of experience from your mind and heart, letting your original face again light the way."

Complicated. Tough.

I like Andersen's "Sandman" better. Uuuff!