On Fear and Its Perception

“I write in order that I may travel with my soul into the places I fear and I may have a friend to share the journey.”

I wrote and posted this on Twitter the other day and very soon after clicking the “Tweet” button I questioned and doubted the validity and veracity of my statement.

I have written before about how I believe fear holds me back from exploring the creative life I want. The above statement is in contradiction to my manifesto and vision for why I write.

Or is it?

I have no clear answer; more a series of random reflections which may or may not lead to a clear answer. It’s like cleaning your glasses only to have them dirtier than when you started.

What follows is simply scraps of thoughts about what I wrote and differing perceptions of it. I am not sure I am right; nor am I sure I am wrong. I will contradict myself, provoke myself, push and question myself. And you can have your addition in the comments.

• Writing is about exploring your own fears; the fears you have of yourself and of the facets of life you find frightening.
• Fear is lacking an understanding of the unknown, the different, the obtuse, the unfathomable. To understand is to give a name to the fear; to know its place and its where it resides.
• My reader is the companion on the journey. They travel with me through the words on the page. At some time in their life they may, or may not, have experienced the same fear.
• What I write may bring comfort to know someone else has experienced the same fear; it may trigger a response; it may have no effect because the experience related in the story is not connected to their own life experiences.
• The opposite of fear is… what? Hope? Vision? Clarity? Discipline?
• The same chemical that is the basis for fear, adrenaline, is the same chemical that is the basis for excitement. Is fear the way our bodies tell us something new and exciting is about to happen?
• Defining fear as it relates specifically to yourself is the first step. What am I afraid of? Is it personal fear, an internal dialogue, or an external fear of something random outside your control? Is there a topic or issue you do not want to explore because of the fear it generates for yourself or fearful of the consequences of exposing it?

So, no answers. Definitely more questions but I know where my thinking is leading me.

If I rewrote my tweet, I would explore another aspect of why I write, another permutation of thinking about creativity and its purposes.

“I write in order that I may travel with my soul into the places I seek to understand and I may have a friend to share the journey.”

“I write in order that I may travel with my soul into the places I find comfort in and I may have a friend to share the journey.”

“I write in order that I may travel with my soul into the places I want to light a flame of light and life and I may have a friend to share the journey.”

 

What would you say?