I fear, you fear, he fears...

So much for trying not to write about my self-obsessive personality...I'll try to rant some other time. For now, we carry on with my infinitely verbose ponderings on the meaning of life...

Today's little sermon on FEAR. Hurrah - I feel like such a 'wannabe'...

I fear I've just realised what drives many people. Amongst other things, I'd say the prime motivating force is fear - the fear of regret. Sure, we may run the rat race (envy, fear of being left behind, greed etc.) and some high-minded individuals may climb to the top of the pyramid and declaim that their success is the result of deriving satisfaction from a job well done. Such is the folly of liberal opinion. We may aim to achieve greatness because we either have something/someone for which/whom we labour, but that too derives from the fear of failure - of causing dissapointment and losing trust. Perhaps we toil to gain recognition in the eyes of our peers; this too is the byproduct of a desire not to be 'just one of them.'
So much for the nobility, courage, valour and fraternity of the human spirit, you say? Not quite - thesauri list several such glorious adjectives as the antonyms of fear, but I wish to expand and tweak that just a little. Fear has a good side. Like pain, it drives us from doing something we know instinctively to be 'wrong,' unworthy, or at least undesirable. The fear of doing evil. Likewise: the fear of failure lights that burning spark that turns into a blaze of effort in 'going for broke.' When all is said and done, I hope to be judged by what I do, than by what I don't do. Inspiring fear never quenched the human desire to try, because the price of failure is eternal fear of being vanquished by that which we cannot overcome. In short, I fear we must prevail. To fear no longer is to achieve.