Fear

If ever I needed proof that fear can be paralysing I have got it on this trip.  Merril and I love to stay here and have done so for the last few years.  I did cancel a trip at the start of the year though.  Covid was happening and we were still coming but then the government banned fishing.  For me that was the last straw.  I could comfortably not do a number of things but when I lost the right to fish one of the main points of the trip for me were gone.
I was talking to the guy that manages this place with his wife.  I had asked how they were going with this Covid thing in play.  He told me they were doing really well.  They had not been seeing the regulars, but they had been having a lot of short-term stays.  People had been coming from Rockhampton and the Gold Coast.
He then pointed to a car I had not seen.  He said that fella had not been out of his house in seven to eight months.  He was too scared.  He is apparently a little older and did not want to be got.
Like so many things it seems fear is both a good and bad thing for me.  If someone says to me in a dangerous situation I was not afraid then they are really a dangerous person to be with.  Fear is a natural defence mechanism. Dictionary.com defines fear as, “a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid”  Personally it does not matter to me if the cause of the fear is real or imagined something kicks in and I am as ready as I will ever be.
Fear of something that may do me in is healthy.  I tend to avoid it.  This will probably be next to impossible to imagine but say something were more powerful then me, I would be silly to confront it unless I knew the trouble was theirs.  I would hide or flee.  Self-preservation.
There is an Island off the coast of Brazil known as Snake Island.  Humans (apart from research teams) are banned from it with good reason.  There is estimated to be a snake every square meter.  It is the only home of the golden lancehead pit viper.  I would be silly not to fear going there.
Yet there is fear that is unhealthy.  I tend to think of unhealthy fears as those that keep me from doing what I would reasonably expect to do.  To me, unhealthy fears bind when liberty is to be expected.  They make my world smaller.
Some are easier to deal with then others.  Many only require an education.  Uncomfortable as that is for me, fear becomes less and can be controlled.  Other fears require intervention.  No matter what I do I cannot get on top of it.  I need help.
Many fears are common to all, like avoiding walking onto a busy street or not going on Snake Island.  For other things, fear can stand in my way.  Being an accounts man, I think in terms of the bottom line.  Just do what I gotta do.