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Fear and Fragility

Fear fears the fearless

By John Ames BirchPublished 5 years ago 5 min read
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“Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” —Yoda

Fear, the cancer of the 21st century. Fear has caused more death and suffering than anything in our entire history. Fear has caused wars to erupt, nations to fall, and has birthed atrocities into existence.

Fear can be useful in the moment, it can direct you to safety or signal approaching danger. The problem we now face is that we all live in a constant state of fear. We fear everything: we fear each other, ourselves, things we know and things we classify as unknown.

Like a cancer affecting the entire human race. Clouding our minds, blinding our eyes and darkening our hearts. We walk through life asleep to the suffering around us, seeing only darkness ahead. We don’t see the horizon as we look forward, its light eclipsed by the fear that’s consuming our hopes and dreams, the fear that eats away at our good futures.

Everyone fears something: being late, angry bosses, financial instability, sexism, violence, hunger, truth or lies. Each of these things we fear do nothing but take more joy, more light, from an already darkened world. We place these restrictions, these fears on ourselves and others sometimes without realizing their weight.

Each fear pulls our hearts further down into despair and suffering. Each of these restrictions are motivated by fear themselves; fear propagates fear. We need to find our hope again to live, laugh and love without expectation.

It is within expectations that fear and disappointment thrive. We expect from ourselves and others to be perfect all the time. We are, each of us, perfectly imperfect reflections of perfection. This doesn’t mean we must ever stop reaching towards perfection, only that when we stumble, we stand again, stronger, wiser and more compassionate than before.

In today’s society, we choose sides, pitting ourselves against each other, standing apart from one another and the whole of humankind, using the differences between us to split the ground we all stand upon into pieces. Standing on opposite sides of that shattered common ground, hoping the divisions separating us will strengthen our position.

These divisions we create or inherit are flung at each other like weapons. Words used to cut and bruise instead of mend and muse. We use the cracks in the broken heart of humanity like shields as we hold them all up to see, like the broken tattered edges of our hearts and broken dreams.

Humanity is better than fear; we are dreamers, explorers, poets, theologians, artists and paragons. We are at our best when we let go of fear and lead with hope.

Hope gives us the spark in the dark to ignite our fight for tomorrow. Hope has sustained us in the darkest times. Hope has birthed nations, movements, revolutions and dreams. Hope gives birth to families and friends, and they give us community.

Community is the coming together of people united in the common good. To learn from each other, teach each other and evolve each other. Community builds common ground, and it’s the only thing that can rebuild it. It is in each other that we must seek salvation; we must stand together, looking up towards the infinite majesty of creation, and reach for it together.

I look at the world today and see so much fear reflected back in the hearts and faces of the people. We are so afraid of each other, trying desperately to find something that will ease that fear. In our desperation, we seek to classify and label each other, to define ourselves and others in outdated and unequal terms that only fuel the fear in ourselves and others.

Fear that takes the form of hate, hate then is used to create more and more fear. That fear moving good people to do terrible and fearful things. Through that cycle of fear and hate, the only outcome ever achieved is suffering.

Our society is sick with the symptoms of fear. Each of us suffering or causing suffering in others, weakening the entirely of human kind. We have shattered the heart of humanity, and each of us are being cut to pieces by the shards.

The only way forward, the only way to mend the broken heart of our people, is to let go of our fear, and love, love ourselves and each other so that each of us can heal, and in turn, heal others.

Together, I see a beautiful and epic future for ALL of our people. A future where the differences between us bridge the gaps, not enlarge them. A future where women, men and animals are respected and protected, a future where the earth is sustainable and each of us finds home. A future where you are not judged by the color of your skin, you birthplace, religion, gender, orientation or language; instead we are all judged by our characters and the good deeds called forth by our hearts.

Human rights and human dignity are for us all; these are rights guaranteed to everyone and not just the few that fit the criteria. Human rights are human rights regardless of any other excuse you tell yourself and others. The fight for one of us is the fight for all of us as it expands the definition of what it means to be human, and the inherent rights of all our beautiful souls.

“You either create a world for everyone or else you will end up in a world fit for no one.”

John Ames Birch

humanity
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About the Creator

John Ames Birch

Hello all I’m just an everyday person taking a introspective look at myself and the world. Trying to help anywhere and everywhere I can.

“You either create a world for everyone or else you will end up in a world fit for no one”

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