I will not choose fear

I’m not going to rant and rave about what’s happening (or not happening) in our government today. We all know that both sides of the isle are securely entrenched in their immovable positions. I am going to write about a more human and personal issue that pertains to the constant news of the day.

I just finished watching a PBS program called We’ll Meet Again. It documented the story of two Cuban boys that were taken in as immigrants in the 60’s. One boy , now an elderly man, was placed with a Hispanic foster family in Washington state. The other boy, now a retired Fire Chief was saved by an African-American sailing captain. One of the men went back to tell the wife of his former foster family, thank you for what they had done for him and his brother. The other man found the children of the now dead sea captain to tell them that their father had saved his life as well as dozens of other immigrants lives. To tell them that their father was a hero.

So now to my point. As children we are sometimes led to believe that we should fear the boogey man, the wicked witch or the crazy old man who lives down the street. Depending on our ages, we may have been told we had to fear the Communists, or those uppity blacks or perhaps that Iranian family that lives across town from us.

It seems in vogue today to be told that we need to fear just about everything and everyone. If your a Democrat, you have to fear the Republicans. If your a Republican, you have to fear the Democrats. You need to fear the Catholics, the Jews, The Muslims, The Atheists, The Tree Huggers and those who use a different brand of golf ball than you use.

The hordes of people coming from the South want to take your job, your house, your car, your money, your women and if you aren’t careful, they’ll even take your new lollipop. They don’t want a better life, they want to take your better life. You must fear them.

We can choose to live in fear or we can choose to not live in fear. I live in Arizona, where openly carried guns are everywhere. Should I ask a random gun owner, “What are you afraid of?” They will almost certainly say they fear nothing. So which is it? You don’t carry a gun because you are afraid of something, or you carry the gun to make sure that something your not afraid of doesn’t harm you? I’m not a gun hater, I’m just a bit confused about them.

I’ve decided that I don’t want to spend my days living in fear. Are there things out in this world that can hurt me, of course. Cancer, car accidents, bad lettuce, poorly told jokes, not wearing deodorant and having the wrong I-phone. All of these things are terrifying.

The problem is, if I spend my life worrying, fearing those things; when will I have time to live? I want to see more hawks flying, have the next best in town taco and meet a new friend that has a darker skin and a cooler accent. I will pay attention, I will observe, but I refuse to live in fear.