Everyday Canvas

Useless Fears

Prompt: What fears have actually come true in your life or, if you’d rather, a friend or a family member’s life?

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Michel de Montaigne said, “There were many terrible things in my life and most of them never happened.” I read Montaigne’s essays at a very early age in life, in fact, when I was in my late teens, and this quote became the perfect direction to which my rational compass pointed. It taught me not to be afraid, which didn’t always work for I can be a genuine scaredy cat at times, but the quote was there all along working in my subconscious nevertheless.

Looking back now, I find out just about nothing I worried about took place, and if it did, its effects were either immediate or much subdued. The only occasion I recall that what I feared came true was when my older son wanted to climb a difficult tree when he was fourteen. His only aid was a thin rope. I told him not to do it and that rope would not hold his weight, but he didn’t listen. Sure enough, he fell from about the first four or five feet on the trunk and broke his arm. This one I tried to prevent because of my fear, but couldn’t.

On the other hand, the things I didn’t fear or never even thought of suddenly jumped at me, proving themselves to be what I should really have feared instead. Taking off from those experiences, maybe we should not fear what we are consciously fearing.

One fear, a worldwide one, that I feared together with everybody was a nuclear war that would be the result of the cold war. Guess what? It didn’t happen.

What happened instead was Al Kaida, Isis, Middle East, etc. And now, those occurrences, too, we fear will be leading us to a World War III, which may possibly end up in a nuclear war. Should we fear that? Maybe or maybe not, but judging from the way the things have evolved in the past, it is highly possible something totally different will come up.

Let’s see. What about an asteroid hitting the earth or an alien invasion from the Andromeda galaxy or someplace like it? How about a zombie invasion? Should we fear those things?

I think not, and neither should we fear the rule of a president we voted or not voted for because we cannot see into the future, and unfortunately, we are only projecting our fears into it, and the emotion of fear is only useful when our physical being is really, truly threatened. Other than that, fear is an unproductive, futile reaction.

Just my two cents!