Something About Fear

 

“Bran thought about it. ‘Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?’
‘That is the only time a man can be brave,’ his father told him.”
― George R.R. Martin

 

Fear is healthy and at times it is necessary. We are often taught tho that it is something to be overcome. A few nights ago I posted my feelings about some of the reactions that I had then read about last week’s shootings in Paris. I felt that people were being way too critical about how others were reacting to the shootings. Tonight a friend of mine replied that she agreed but she also had a problem with people ‘fear-shaming’. She felt that there were those who weren’t being compassionate towards others who may be concerned about letting possibly dangerous refugees into their countries and communities. She was clear that she was neither a ‘truth’ who believed that the incidents didn’t happen (my feelings about that may be food for another posting one day soon) nor was she a new-ager who believed that people should never show fear.
I agree with her to an extent. People need to be able to feel whatever they feel without others telling them they are wrong. Fear is an honest response to terror. It is the response that ‘terrorists’ wish to evoke. However it would be a sad thing for fear to stop us from obeying the dictates of our hearts and our wills. Fear cannot stop us from helping those in need and doing what we can to help others. We cannot let fear make us lesser than we can be. If we let that happen than no matter what else happens, the terrorists will have achieved their goal. This is when bravery and facing our fear has to take precedent. We need to decide who we want to be, both as individuals and as a nation.
Blessings, G

 

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Ready to StartReady to Start by G A Rosenberg

 

Owl Spirit Watching and RisingOwl Spirit Watching and Rising by G A Rosenberg

 

The World According to Jean Valjean

 

“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”
― George R.R. Martin

“I’ve tried to become someone else for a while,
only to discover that he, too, was me.”
― Stephen Dunn

 

Who am I and who am I in relation to other people? At my core what do I contain and what contains me? We draw other people into our lives and interact with them and with each interaction the question becomes both clearer and more muddied. Tonight My son took us for Father’s Day to see the Canadian touring company of Les Misérables, a musical that’s well-loved by my family. At its core, aside from the historical milieu it shows a series of interactions between people that changes one or both of them. The more adaptable the person is to circumstances, the better they are at integrating the exchange and becoming more themselves. This is personified best in the characters and interactions between the two main characters Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert. Jean Valjean portrays a man unjustly imprisoned for a crime who is freed and then pursued by his jailer Javert. Javert sees things as absolutes. A criminal is always a criminal and society must be protected by them. He sees nothing wrong with acting dishonestly himself to catch criminals because he is on the ‘right’ side of the law. Jean Valjean is more concerned with doing the right and honourable thing and finds his true identity through his choices. Each encounter between Valjean and Javert transforms both as more and more Valjean chooses honesty over his societal role and Javert choosing his moral (as opposed to ethical) absolutes. Javert when forced to go beyond his societal identity and his rigid sense of right and wrong finds himself unable to live in a world where a thief can have more honour than an officer of the law.
Are we defined by our society or by our inner being? How do we test this if not through other people? This question has come up for me a lot in my life. Ultimately I may pick up much from the viewpoints and being of those around me but all my attempt to live according to some label has proved more and more laughable. My interactions with both Valjean and Javier have driven home that point. But then I have always interacted well with fictional characters, no matter how real they may be.
Blessings, G

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Holographic2Holographic by G A Rosenberg

 

Thunder MandalaThunder Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Heroes and Villains

“My own heroes are the dreamers, those men and women who tried to make the world a better place than when they found it, whether in small ways or great ones. Some succeeded, some failed, most had mixed results… but it is the effort that’s heroic, as I see it. Win or lose, I admire those who fight the good fight.”
― George R.R. Martin

 

Heroes are willing to make a stand and risk it all to make something beyond them better. Perhaps they push a child out of the way of a moving vehicle. Perhaps they are firefighters who rush into a burning building because they hear a dog barking or perhaps they have learned that either the company they work for or the country they grew up believing in has been doing some rather horrible things like monitoring its citizens illegally when the country’s very foundations are based on freedom or perhaps performing illegal activities in other countries and then lying to its citizenry about it. The country in question then turns around and calls these people traitors for exposing this illegal activity. It’s good to know that heroes still exist. Tho a bit unsettling to see that villains do as well.
Blessings, G

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Guardians of Flame and StoneGuardians of Flame and Stone by G A Rosenberg

 

<Space JewelSpace Jewel by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day — October 21 2012

“Laughter is poison to fear.”
― George R.R. Martin

Cleansing my soul with laughter
rough feeling before much better after
humour cleansing my mind
causing rewind
hearing it up to the rafters

Felt those clouds surrounding my head
my heart weighed down; felt like lead
now looking for the funny
more precious than money
that makes silver out of anger’s red

Now a new day’s found it’s start
sunshine opening the heart
I’ve found the happy
may seem a bit sappy
but crying’s never felt smart..

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lymrical sappiness perhaps, but wow there are days that only humour can get me through and I love word play and merriment. Tho on an evening where i’m talking about laughter, I can’t come up with anything funny to say. So I’ll use other people’s :

 

“When I’m not in my right mind, my left mind gets pretty crowded.” — Steven Wright
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read ” — Groucho Marx
“A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.” — Emo Philips

 

Blessings, G

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The Child’s Offering by G A Rosenberg

Pulled Towards the Centre by G A Rosenberg