Bestow upon me thy discordant images at such speed as to render linear thought impossible!

“All of life is in our minds.
Where else does it take place, where else do we add up what it means to us and subtract what we have lost?
An event is just an event until some person attaches meaning to it.”
- “Fool’s Fate” by Robin Hobb

Feelings are what we are always subjected to and susceptible to, and perhaps the most primal and basic feeling is fear.

Its that deep choking feeling that engulfs your entire body. The overwhelming sense of helplessness. That feeling of desperation. The feeling that causes adrenaline to pump through your veins and fumbles your brain and senses.

There is fear of pain, fear of hurt. Fear of losing, fear of being beaten. Fear of rejection, fear of love. Fear of anything and everything.

Animals live daily in fear. Will they be eaten or killed today? Will they be cast out from the pack or herd? A mouse trembles in fear, frozen by the terror as a snake bears down on its next meal. Fear causes animals to run faster or they will become the main course for carnivores. Fear is what causes a zebra to try and drown a lioness in a lake, which has a death grip on its neck. Fear is what causes the dominant males to match the herd leader's strength. Un-dominant males are not tolerated.

Are we any different?

We fear of being replaced. We fear of not being able to raise our family and loved ones. As a result, we work harder because of our loved ones. We do not wish them to suffer from our lack of efforts. We fear that the company might lose an important client or project because of our misjudgment and lack of knowledge. We fear of failing our exams, because we fear of disappointing our parents and their wrath.

“Something timeless,
Something older than the fallen mountains,
And newer than a seed unfurling in rich soil.
Such is love.”
- “Fool’s Fate” by Robin Hobb

We fear love because we have lost it once, twice, thrice or many times, and hence we fear events repeating themselves and therefore, we fear of experiencing the pain of loss again. We fear of rushing into things, because we fear of looking foolish or we fear of being rejected. Because we fear of being alone, so we fear being unattractive, we fear behaving differently and we fear being just us.

We fear being different or unusual, because we fear the mockery, disdain and ostracism. We fear of being shunned by others, because we fear the loneliness. We fear abnormalities, because we fear mishaps. We fear change, because we fear coming out of our comfort zone. We fear stagnation, because we fear of not improving and progressing.

Ultimately, fear is what keeps us alive and all our senses tingling. If one doesn't fear anything, then one is dead no matter how alive one is.

What do you fear?

“Sometimes it seems unfair that events so old can reach forward through the years, sinking claws into one’s life and twisting all that follows it.
Yet perhaps that is the ultimate justice: we are the sum of all we have done added to the sum of all that has been done to us.
There is no escaping that, not for any of us.”
- “Fool’s Fate” by Robin Hobb