Serving Our Fear
It's the fear that gets in the way. We need to bring our beliefs into the world and live fearlessly.
“In this strange season when we are suspended between realization and expectation, may we be found honest about the darkness and more perceptive of the light.” Dr. Jack Boozer
The last thing we need to do is serve our fears. I see it every day, most of us have our heads down and serve our fears.
I pick up hitchhikers. My wife hates it but I refuse to let fear rule my higher calling of brotherhood. That’s what’s wrong with our fear inside, that knot of pain, that brokenness in all of us - it makes us not be our brother’s keeper.
We’re too busy. Hey, we are suffering too! What if …? We no longer venture out of our comfort zone. We huddle, and hunker down into our small habits. Our community rots. We fear. It’s only gotten worse with the isolating and fear-mongering (everyone could kill you!) policies of the covid pandemic.
Fear is everywhere but nobody sees it. Isolationism and conservatism is fear-driven. Those immigrants - people taking our jobs! The homeless - just freeloaders!
We fear having no money - so driven we are that this defines our status and our value in society. We fear not being loved, so we aren’t ourselves. We put on airs, we do what the crowd does. Fear, it drives our day, so much.
“In man, the sleeping half contradicts the active. It is the voice of nature itself.” J.C. Miscreant
Fear is a survival mechanism, left over from the days we strolled over the savannah and our life was always in peril. But today, we need to reject it and find new ways to come together, commune, help each other and be our brother's keeper.
“Fear cannot be got rid of by personal effort, but only by the ego’s absorption in a cause greater than its own interests (the bow). Absorption in any cause will rid the mind of some of its fears; but only absorption in the loving and knowing of the divine ground, can rid it of all fear”
- Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy. p. 163
Today, I watched a documentary (see below). Actually, I rewatched it. I won’t give away the plot. But it hit me to the core, this man, this preacher who so loved the world. Set in North Dakota amid the fracking boom, The Overnighters is a complex film. But it will force you to take sides. Are you for the NIMBY’s or are you for those working on a solution, who love and understand before judging? But the doc. will speak to you in many ways and force you to confront your fears. It did that for me.
I see a broken world out there. Few souls are looking after each other and caring for others. Yes, there are good people out there. Fearless people. But few.
Today, I read about a young man who committed suicide in his car last night. An “overnighter” and one of so many rejected by the vicious and cutthroat world we live in. How have we come to this? I reject the argument that this is the way the world is and must be.
Canada, once a society that supported the unfortunate, has moved to and is now dressed in the business first, American model. So many left behind. Read about the death of Kevin Dickman who died alone, in a frozen ravine. An overnighter, no doors open to him. I reject this kind of Canada - where every 4th person visits a food bank. Where suicides remain so high. Where our youth will never be able to afford a home of their own. A country that takes in only those immigrants that can pay, enrich the nation.
We need to put our beliefs into actions. I don’t doubt many believe in being charitable and helping others. However, we must Be this and live this IN the world, at home in the world. Not just profess this, give anonymously to large organizations to assuage our guilt. No, we must like a Bodhisatva, go into the world and make our compassion visible. For in essence - Thou art That. There for the grace of god, go I. Tat Tvam Asi.
A man has many skins in himself, covering the depths of his heart. Man knows so many things; he does not know himself. Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, just like an ox’s or a bear’s, so thick and hard, cover the soul. Go into yhour own ground and learn to know yourself there. Meister Eckhart
I have no answers in terms of “we must do X”. Just watch the documentary and open your heart. Learn to let go of your fears and live at home in this world.
Fortune At
to love, to be loved
wanted, needed, counted on
breath, a bowel movement
the patter of rain on the roof
the hum of a full fridge
money, jingling in your pocket
a warm bed, a warm body
heart beating, music that moves
morning sun on your face
no anger, no fear
at home in this world
here and now
alive
another day.