Throughout my life I have been taught to fear loss. Losing things that are costly to replace, losing the ability to do something, losing my innocence, losing God’s love, you name it, it can be lost in a heartbeat and never be regained. And some of that is true. Life can’t be given back if it is taken. An experience cannot be unhad once it occurs. However, the message that I kept getting from all this was not to be careful or thoughtful or courageous in my actions, but to be fearful.
Fear is so often used to attempt to control people. Like a sheep dog herding it is used to try and keep people in line, keep them from doing what others don’t want them to do and get them to do what is wanted. It can keep us from harm and that’s its primary purpose, but many times it keeps us from living a full life which makes it harmful.
It would be great if we got messages throughout life that encouraged us to try things. Not to buy things, but to try things. Not marketing messages geared to make us consumers, but messages that encouraged us to be people, to be unique, to be healthy and happy in our own skins, whatever they look like. How different would our lives be if they weren’t filled with fear that we might lose something and instead were filled with images of courage to try to gain something. And knowledge that 99 out of 100 times we will fail and so savor our success all the more. What if there were no fear in failing? What if failing was seen not as losing face or being a loser, but as part of the process of succeeding? How different would life be if the pressure of fear were off and the fire and drive of possibility encouraged us to achieve? I feel encouraged just thinking about it.