Fear

I'm not going outside today, it's raining.

Can't cross the street; those teenagers are skateboarding.

Turn off the TV, I'm tired of seeing black faces.

Stop talking to me; you're making me feel uncomfortable.

I'm not paying my taxes because it's going to those people.

That woman has no right to dress like that.

School isn't for me.

I bought a gun today.

That's the wrong side of town.

Who does he think he is?

I can't get a better job.

Men don't have any rights anymore.

Where am I going to go to the bathroom now?

You can't be equal to me.

My mother is dying.

I have died inside.

Where is hope?

Fear.

Like a wall, some fear is so high we can't see the top of it.

While other fears are only ankle-high and trip up our day.

Fear prevents us from realizing a better, more beautiful experience of life.

Some fear is good for us.

Fear, in its basic form, is a challenge to the normal tides of life.

Basic fear, once overcome, allows us to grow into our lives.

Childhood fears of riding a two-wheel bike for the first time.

Fear of the dark.

Once we grapple with these basic fears, we can travel down the road of life and look up at the stars with wonder.

However, too many fears create anxiety about the possible.

I need a raise, I need to ask for more money at work.

But if I ask, I'm sure they will fire me. It's safer not to ask, maybe, just maybe they will reward me without me asking?

This may seem like a leap, but Dr. Martin Luther King said, freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Life is the oppressor.

None of us are getting out of it alive.

The typical day to day drag of life can put fear into anyone.

Let alone the tyrant we might be subject to both in society, at the workplace, or even in our own home.

If you are hungry, you must say so.

Too many Americans are afraid.

They are afraid of the change in demographics.

Translated, white people are afraid of becoming a minority.

Too many don't see women as equal to men.

Too many don't see the gay community at all.

Too many are afraid to challenge the story they were told of the American dream and their purported privileged place in it.

Too many are afraid to confront political, economic authority and demand their right to be treated equally.

Too many fear imagined consequences of racist myths and their loss of political-economic power.

Too many listen to the monsters that feed this fear for profit.

Fear.

What can we do about fear?

The best approach is to provide support to the fearful.

Like a pair of training wheels, provide an ear, a shoulder, a hug, a hand to steady the fearful's course.

A nightlight of truth.

Hold a light up in the darkness to push back the shadows of doubt and ignorance.

A light to show that the fear that seemed all too real was nothing more than the imagination of the ego.

Fear can keep us from enjoying what life has for all of us.

Each life is precious, and some need a little more love than others to be what they can be.

It is up to the torch bearers of life to illuminate a path through the valley of fear.

Because on the other side is where peace is waiting on us.

Drop hate.

Be hope.

Peace

DFrey