We have nothing to fear (file under considerations)

In what might be one of the best inaugural speeches of a President (yet?), FDR in one of the most dire moments in American history reminded the industrious people of his country that fear can and should be overcome. For a moment, as a writer, I am asking you to stop reading to consider; what are you truly afraid of? I mean that thing that you haven’t even told your lover, best friend or family. What truly frightens you? Once you have thought about it… continue reading.

We currently live in an age in which fear is used as a tool of oppression by the elite against the under classes. Case in point is the result of the attack against the United States on September 11, 2001. The fear associated with that has been used to justify any number of things that without fear as the motivator would have never come to be. This is not something new either; it has existed since time immemorial, and will continue to, as long as you allow it. To understand even a glimpse of this you should read Buckminster Fuller’s great book; “The Great Pyrates,”

I bring this up as the result of some very real soul searching I have been doing. As you are well aware I have finally started the journey toward my self defined manifest destiny. I began the journey as the result of overcoming my fear – both real and imagined. As I have pointed out before there are any number of a million reasons to do something of which you dream and usually very few as to why you should not – FEAR being one of them. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the result. Of the work. Of the pain. Of the PLEASURE. Self created and directed fear that SOMEHOW is a more powerful motivator than the dream itself. And yet, right now, as I considered this post, shifting from okay I’ll write, to no no I’ll wait, I began to consider FDR’s very powerful and emotive statement.

For many years I was locked by expectation. By a self imposed belief that I had to do something to please my parents, siblings, girlfriends and friends at large. Much of what I felt was a personally created burden. One which recognized my own intelligence while at the same time allowed myself to be manipulated, cajoled, harnessed and used for some other persons purpose. AND TO WHAT RESULT? Was I happier, more intelligent, wealthier or somehow fulfilled by allowing my fear to dictate the actions I would take to define my own life?

Fears, however real they may have been, had taken root of my soul and resultant from this was my obedience, my comfort and my robot like motioning through life. AND FOR WHAT?

In almost every one of the two hundred thousand words I have written on this blog this year the most important appear at the end of each post; are you dreaming big and inspired? I recall writing early on about where my notion of dream came from but will remind you now.

In Pretty Woman there is a scene where a black vagabond is pushing a shopping cart down the street and he says; “What’s you dream? Everybody’s got a dream?” It has always stayed with me and repeats itself many times a day in my head.

It is not merely enough to have the dream. You have to be willing to live the dream. EVERY DAY. To take steps and actions toward that dream which are consistent with your integrity, character and drive. It is easy to sleep your way to the top. It’s a whole lot harder and more consistent with dreams to remain true to YOU and to take steps, however small, toward the fulfillment of that dream everyday. And when inevitably life hands you lemons – MAKE LEMONADE.

AS I sit here listening to Maria Callas I am struck how someone so intelligent could be so stupid as to undermine his own ambition by trying to be something someone else wanted. I wonder what would have happened if she became a seamstress or a dry cleaner shop owner. What would the world have been deprived of? Or Einstein. Or Tesla. Or FDR. OR YOU!

I am what is known as a stream of consciousness writer. Very rarely do I have to go back and change what I have written. Very rarely do I even think about it after it is on the page. I have read, reread and again this post. Taking four or five time as much time to write this as usual as I want to ensure that the point is made elegantly, succinctly and powerfully.

We have enormous power. Our dreams have enormous power. The question which haunts is whether we can overcome our fears and become what we most want. Gandhi did. Mother Teresa did. Martin Luther King Jr did. Can we? Are we brave enough to overcome? I firmly believe that we are!

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said; “He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.”

Ambrose Redmoon once said; “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.”

Marie Curie once said; “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”

Take this for what it is but I am a better man for having written it.

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM