I had an interesting conversation with my mom yesterday about fear. We were talking about Hurricane Rita and how frightening it must have been for those trying to evacuate who ran out of gas and were stranded on roadways with no gas, no water, no food, no air conditioning, and night falling.
They say only fear of the dark and fear of falling are genetically encoded in humans. All the other fears, we personally and individually create.
This photograph is of a sculpture created by my daughter Adina when she was a senior in high school and in advanced art. Adina, formerly a commercial artist who now teaches art in high school, selected fear as her focus that year. All art she created interpreted fear in some media. This sculpture won First in state (Texas).
I've often thought this sculpture is particularly illustrative of the destructive power of fear with its cruel, twisted spikes. If you bow to the power of Fear rather than fight it, fear will bore into your soul and eventually destroy you. Writers and other creative souls seem especially prone to fear. Fear of rejection. Fear of failure. Fear of success, whatever you want to call your personal nemesis.
If you suffer from fear, no matter what that fear may be, act in the face of your fear, and you gain power over it instead of letting it rule over you and your life. When fear rules, you lose all that you might otherwise gain.
spooky!
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