Thursday, November 19, 2015

Fear

Five fears that you have:

I’ve always been acutely aware of the possibilities of miscommunication and misunderstandings, which can lead to becoming embarrassed and/or looking like a fool. This might be at the root of my mild phobia of talking on the phone. I intensely dislike looking like a fool, to such an extent that sometimes I act like a fool on purpose, thus taking charge of my foolishness. Is it a fear? I suppose so. Comedy is my armor.

Terminal disease scares me. The possibility of something lethal quietly growing inside of me is terrifying. I read about people dying of cancer all of the time, most of them my age or younger. It just doesn’t seem fair. Then again, nobody ever said that life is fair.

That’s pretty much it. I could break these two into sub-categories in order to reach the number of fears requested by the prompt, but these are the only two that really ever occupy any space in my head. I suppose I have a fear of bodily injury, bad things happening to my loved ones (parents are always more vulnerable than people without kids), and all of the other usual things, but I would categorize these under “an awareness of possible danger” rather than outright fear. To me, “fear” is a strong word, much like “hate”. People use these words much too freely, hating this and fearing that. Me? I dislike this and am wary of that.

As I was thinking about this, the following picture popped up in an article I was reading:


My fears are in the "daily life" and "personal future" categories. I am aware of the other hazards, especially the "environment" category, since part of my job is teaching kids about environmental stewardship, but I don't consider it a fear. Despite its seriousness, it's more of an abstraction to me. It's also something I'm actively involved in making better. Action often negates fear. Fears are behavioral adaptations (to help keep us safe) and as such, are sometimes beyond our ability to easily control (like phobias involving spiders, heights, etc.).

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