Fear is one of the most unique emotions I have noticed over the course of my life. Sort of like anger, but at the same time, different. Like anger, it can take over a person. Unlike anger, fear is the only emotion that dares you to try and push past it. Fear wants you to overcome it and yet doesn’t, all at the same time. It’s an oxymoron of an emotion.

As I was talking to one of my service providers the other day, he helped me see that with fear it is also a matter of perspective in how it is dealt with. It can either rule you or be used to help you go further in life. He gave me a couple of acronyms for it that I can remember: One is ‘Forget Everything And Run’, and the other is ‘Forget Everything And Rise’. As you can see from the acronyms, it is a matter of how you look at fear in what it can do for you.

There is much we know about fear, but still a lot we are still learning about as time goes on.

Fear has made a lot of people do terrible things. Just look at the Nazis and how they were made to fear the Jews and how that fear led to the Holocaust. Genocide is stemmed by fear almost all the time. Cultures are made to fear those that are different from them and then end up wiping out those that are different from them.

As Yoda alludes to in one of the Star Wars movies, ‘Fear does lead to Hate’. Taking away fear often helps take away hate. When someone can look at someone without fearing things about them, they can look at them more as a human being.

Many Americans seem to have voted for Trump out of fear about Immigrants and ISIS in the past election, which is one example of how fear can rule people. Fear is a powerful emotion, but it can be overcome by people imposing their will over it, though it takes an effort to do so. But, it is worth it to defeat fear and be clearheaded.

There is much we know about fear, but still a lot we are still learning about as time goes on. This includes how it takes over whole masses of people, as well as why it affects individuals differently in so many ways. Only time will answer these questions as we study them more. Along with individuals stepping forward to give us more and more information.

Eventually, humanity will master the emotion known only as fear.

*Tips his hat and slides into the shadows as he exits out the door*.