“The meeting was progressing smoothly, until someone made a suggestion of how the group could make some new and much needed changes, suddenly he felt threatened. How dare this interloper suggest they try new ways of being, the old ways had worked for years. The man continued to feel threatened as everyone nodded in agreement with the interloper that the time had come for change…the man knew he was alone in his thoughts and desires to resist change. So he did the next best thing, his posture changed to ramrod straight, his voice took on a low steely tone and suddenly the change that only seconds ago was alive in the air was replaced by fear. Fear that any changes no matter how needed was scary. In a few minutes they were all under the man’s spell of fear. “A scene from a day in the life of BGIM
Fear…it’s all around us, no matter where we go, it seems someone is fearful and fear while occasionally useful is by and large a toxic state of being. See, when one is infected with fear, they infect others, in fact someone with a raging case of fear will infect everyone they encounter, and fear is like an emotional STD.
Here in the US for the past several years, we have seen the rise of ultra-conservatism and all sorts of madness as people found themselves pushing back against having a non-white president, economic collapse and change. This thing has progressed so rapidly that we are seeing calls to roll us back to eras we all thought were long gone. Just yesterday in Michigan, a lawmaker was banished from a debate on abortion for using the word…vagina. Call me crazy, seems the use of the word vagina while speaking on issues related to women’s reproductive health and rights is perfected valid. After all it’s not like it was referred to as the love hotbox.
It seems no matter where we go, online, offline, wherever, people desperately cling to their views, liberal, conservative, etc. never daring to listen to others but the truth is fear is the greater issue.
Living with a raging case of fear, keeps us unwilling to truly see or hear others, instead we desperately hold to our belief systems, when confronted we fight back and frankly we become toxic. I am starting to believe it’s not about race, class, sexual orientation, etc…it’s fear that is tearing this country apart.
In the end all we can do though, is search ourselves and look at what scares us and make a commitment to let go of fears that restrict us and instead look to be fearless. Perhaps if enough of us fight back against the fear virus, we can indeed create some real change on this dusty rock.
