Fear Assignment Part One

1.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

- Frank Herbert

I use this quote because every time I think of fear, it pops into my head.  Fear is the thing that freezes you, it drops every human being from an intelligent being into a creature that knows only instinct, knows only "fight or flight".  It is the awful thing in the pit of your stomach that prevents you from doing anything at all sometimes.  

Fear is a useful tool, it keeps us alive, it keeps us safe, it makes us stronger and faster by releasing adrenaline into our bloodstream.  However sometimes we fear things that we can do nothing about, and that is when fear hurts us, paralyzes us, prevents us from accomplishing what we need to.  It is that one portion of our life that we seemingly have no control of, it's the thing that slowly creeps up on us as we lie in bed in the dark, trying to sleep.  

I think fear can inspire us and hold us back in equal measure.  Another author I read Chuck Pahlaniuk says, "Write about what scares you the most.  Write about what disgusts you, what makes you uneasy.  Those thoughts are what makes art."  I have to agree, as many of the best songs, movies, and books play with the idea of fear, or toss around various concepts of fear, but at the same time, it can be extremely difficult to confront fear head on like that, and not everyone is able to.  

Quite frankly, I'm not entirely sure how I will be with this assignment, presenting it and whatnot.  I guess we'll see.

3. 

As to how I think people will react to my experiment, I'm not entirely sure.  I'm afraid that some will not understand what I'm trying to do/won't go along with it, and I think that some people will enjoy it and go along with it just fine.  I'm really not entirely sure, as this class is interesting.  I am worried that it might hit some people kind of hard, which I really don't want, but at the same time, I'm interested to see who is okay with the concept and who is not. 

I think it will make some people think very long and hard about themselves and about what my topic is, which unfortunately I can't talk about here.