So today was... interesting. The topic of distraction was pulled off flawlessly thanks to Gizmo the Distraction Ferret. No this is not a picture of him but I imagine this is what he thinks he looks like. He broke up the serious moments quite nicely by bounding across the room and into someone's bag. Well done Distraction Ferret.








However, to turn to a more serious topic of fear and... how the hell can it make you more creative. I guess it depends. Speaking of creative fear... you can't do it better than The Colbert Report. They poke fun at us (as in all of us Americans) being controlled using this ancient and powerful primal response.

Let me break it down for you. Fear and other primal functions (like sex) hang out in the cerebellum. The cerebellum is there to make sure you live and reproduce, aka the ID. Fear doesn't rationalize. It gives you the fight or flight response when confronted. It doesn't ask you analyze the situation, why you were there in the first place and how you could have avoided it all together.

Fear is there to give you the extra alertness and strength when you are being chased by a lion or whatever is bigger than you and wants to eat your face.  It's there to keep you alive when you are confronted in a life or death situation. You don't have time to rationalize your situation and have to quickly choose how to get out alive. With the advent of civilization, that primal instinct isn't needed so much anymore, but it is still has it's uses.

Fear is also a wonderful form of control. What makes fear so effective is not the immediate fight or flight response, but the idea, the potential of being in a situation that would cause it. Fear of the fear. Brilliant. How can you make people loose their rationality and choose to fear the fear? It's easy. People naturally fear the unknown; that primal instinct to stay alive. Fear the dark cave because something big might live in it. Fear what's beyond the ocean because you might just fall off the earth.

Long story short, keep knowledge from people, and use that fear to keep them in line. The term knowledge is power is true on so many levels. You know what's in the cave, but don't tell anyone. What's in there takes away your control.

What Fear Means to Me

worry -> uncomfortable -> fear -> hate -> suffering

My definition of fear... is something irrational and should be left to the function it serves; to keep your body alive in a life or death situation. There's a time and a place for it, but when you actually have time to think about what you're afraid of... you have time to analyze why you are so afraid and be able to remove it, or at the least be able to cope with it and not let it control you.

I am not without my irrational fears. I accept things my body refuses to deal with normally, like crowded places and bridges. My body physically reacts in these situations, even though I'm fine. I know I will be fine, so I am able to get though these situations without getting above the extremely uncomfortable threshold.