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4/14/2010
THE ANSWER TO FEAR
In my last post, I stated that some of
the extreme rections to the healthcare legislation and the current administration is a result of fear. Fear that times are
achanging: fear that the country is moving into a future that doesn't perfectly mirror the past: fear that if others
gain, someone must be losing. I call this irrational fear because although things are changing, it isn't necessarily
a bad thing. Change is inevitable, so the battle to maintain the status quo is ultimately a losing one.
But fear
is real for all of us. Some of our fears are different, some identical. Some of us are afraid of dark streets late at
night (I certainly don't call that irrational); some fear tiny bugs that couldn't possibly harm us; some fear certain
animals; others fear speaking in public .... and on and on.
I think there's two kinds of fear ... positive and negative.
The positive fear is the kind that comes to our aid in certain situations as a sort of self-preservation
mechanism. Some people might even call it intuition: Don't walk down that dark street after its dark; that
bridge shakes too much when I go across, so I'll go the long way round; that snarling Pit Bull could mean serious
trouble, cross the street.
Then, there's negative fear. The kind that paralyzes you. Keeps you from doing
something that you might really want to do, or need to do. An example for me was driving halfway across country. It was from
Chicago to Boston by myself, and I was really terrified.
I hadn't been driving long. Had actually never
driven beyond the city limits, talk about cross country. But it was something I wanted to do, so I controlled the fear.
I acknowledged it, then put it behind me. I refused to let it consume me, or force me to change my plans. I
made the drive, and really enjoyed it ... except for the time I was rerouted by some truckers to avoid an unusual Spring blizzard
and ended up driving over the Alleghany Mountains. That wasn't fun.
The point is that sometimes we have to man
... or woman up, and confront what it is making us afraid. If it's a negative fear, we must confront it and
not allow it to ruin something that would be a positive experience. If it's a positive fear ... listening might
be a good idea.
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