Theatre of fear

 

Just found out that fear is but a theatre. Not that there is no danger out there, of cause there is, but fear is nothing more than the response to the realization that there is “something” out there. The response is the theatre we call fear. So it is no more than a response to the realization of reality.

 

When confronted with a hungry lion in your living room, the initial spark is the realization that there is indeed a lion in your living room; the screaming you do after that, the peeing in your pants or the running away, is nothing more than a response to  that realization, the theatre.

 

Now there are good plays and bad plays and depending on the outcome of your confrontation with the lion in your living room we could, if we must, decide if it was a good or a bad play. But the judgment, good or bad, will depend entirely on your point of view, the outcome of the play from the standpoint of the lion will no doubt be different than your own.

 

In the theatre of fear there’s a part that is called “not being ready”, but like the whole theatre, that too is just an act. Being ready is often misconstrued as being your perfect self in the perfect circumstance. Like an Olympic athlete, who has prepared for this one moment for years; flags are waving, crowd is cheering, starter at the ready; Go! 

 

But life is not an Olympic event and it’s hard to tell what the track is on which you are racing, or how high you need to jump. Besides that, if the Olympic athlete does not win the race, does that mean he was not ready?

 

Maybe getting caught up by the theatre of fear by definition means you are not ready to face reality.

 

Since fear is only the response to reality, we are able to change our response, take that ability to respond, our responsibility, we will see clearly that there is no need for fear and that there is room to act in more ways than one.

 

Seeing fear as a theatre does not mean that everything changed overnight, like any circus, it takes a while before the last trace of their former presence is gone, a last half torn billboard, confetti on the ground, a lingering smell of the lion. But now that I know it’s all just an act, it’s easy not to buy into it, but like any smoker will tell you, the urge to see reality through smoke and mirrors is there waiting, always eager to light up.