Without Fear
Is it not fear that destroys our trust in the very mankind from which each and every one of us has come from?
When we are but babes seeing the world around us for the very first time, there in the safety of our caretaker, we begin our entry into this life without a fear, picking up this and that, tasting dirt and rocks and even insects fearlessly knowing ... knowing what? What is there to know during those very early years but to know everything we can know, and that journey of knowing begins before we even know that 'what', that 'where', that 'when', that 'why' and 'who'. That is our journey to learn the world we are born into and will eventually become a part of as we become assimilated into our communities, no matter how small or how large.
As adults, free from our parents and relatives to make the world that we have learned to know and have become comfortable within, we do not stop learning about that world, but learn about our relationship with that very world. How do we fit in and become one within the community?
Initially, outside the basic family unit, we have our neighborhood friends then our schoolmates and those who attend church, have but yet another connection with community.
This learned experience, becoming socialized thru those various influences that every hu'man goes thru, is our path for better or for worse. Better because with that connect we have reinforced our security, a safety net to fall back on whenever we feel threatened by forces that we do not understand and fear. Our community of people that help us when we feel weak and unable to fight off the threats come to our aid. To not do so would weaken the community and therefore the individuals that make up the community.
But the flip side of what we feel is 'good' is the power our communities have over our thinking, the thinking that may challenge the belief systems we have grown up with and used as a crutch to withstand outside forces that we feel threatened by... ideas or philosophies, religions and even arts that we are unfamiliar with but by an attraction we do not fully comprehend, are drawn to.
We may have learned of these 'new things' thru the media or listening to strangers speaking about ideas that are so new to us ... but appealing. We'd like to know more about that idea or that philosophy... that religious viewpoint may tickle our imagination even though it contradicts the views we grew up with.
When situations like this happen to us, we are forced into decision making. This decision making may be life changing, so much so that what we knew and lived by is not as stable as it was before learning this 'new way of seeing.' Do we fear the result of accepting the new or retreat back to our old path where all is secure and safe?
Knowledge is an ongoing process, a journey that never ends but offers rest stops to reflect and enjoy what one has learned. But when we honestly reflect upon our gained knowledge, it is incumbent upon our Truth to acknowledge whether what we have learned on the journey is as fulfilling to our Self as it can be. We may very well find that all we know is only a pittance to what we need to know to know our Self.
The hunger to know is what creates the menu of philosophy... the varied ideas that encompass every branch of knowledge we hu'mans have devised and recognize as worthy of a discipline are at our disposal depending upon our own unique hunger to fulfill our emptiness. We each are attracted to knowing what we don't yet know but thru curiosity continue yearning to know. That could be as commonplace as learning all one wants to know about cooking or carpentry... knowing about gardening or astronomy, to knowing about nature or our hu'man nature and how we fit in to this life we are brought into. Knowing is all-inclusive. To deny ourselves of knowing that which our curiosity is attracted to is foolish. Do we fear to know that which we desire to know? To know the roots of that fear will conquer the fear. Knowledge is both the protector and the giver - protecting us from fear and giving us meaning in our lives. Eliminate fear and we dispel the darkness revealing the light within us all.
Imagine a world without fear.
cecil
3.25.12
Picture of the Week:
"Illumination Strikes without Warning"
photo: cecil
photo: cecil