Sans fear of dying,
The angst of trying
Is felt and left
To float.
Let it Float [Lyric Poem]
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Tag Archives: fear
PROMPT: Scared
What’s the thing you’re most scared to do? What would it take to get you to do it?
Going to a cocktail party with no one I know in attendance. FYI —Things that would generate less anxiety include: cage-fighting, gator-wrestling, skydiving, and (admittedly with the appearance of irony) giving a speech to a large audience.
A battle-hardened phalanx with pointy sticks.
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PROMPT: Good At
1.) Changing my mind. This wouldn’t be noteworthy except that there seems to be a stigma attached to adults changing their minds about a thing (even in the face of new, better, or first -time information.) It’s considered “wishy-washy.”
2.) Learning. I love learning and I devote a lot of time to it. Beyond youth, a skill for it requires a capacity for what Shunryu Suzuki called “beginner’s mind” — a state a lot of people seem to run from, rather than toward.
3.) Adopting another’s point of view. Truth be told, I wouldn’t really say I’m good at this, but the bar is quite low.
4.) Operating my body.
5.) Going the places that scare me.
NOTE: I thought I was better at humility, but the fact that I’m willing to answer the question speaks to the contrary.
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PROMPT: Fears
For example: being punched in the face and swimming in open waters.
As for how, to my knowledge there’s only one way to overcome any fear and that’s exposure to the fearful stimulus. e.g. One loses (at least greatly reduces) fear of being hit by sparring.
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The Other Shore [Free Verse]
Standing on the bank,
Looking at the other shore --
A hundred meters or a mile?
Does it matter,
In such a fast flow?
If I were to swim for it,
Launching myself into
Those cold, choppy waves,
Which would I reach first:
The other shore, or
The Falls, downstream?
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Jolt [Senryū]
on a narrow ridge,
covered with fine dust,
my foot slips. I’m awake!
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The Brave One [Haiku]
one hundred birds
startle at my presence;
one eyeballs me.
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“A narrow Fellow in the Grass” (1096) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]
A narrow Fellow in the Grass
Occasionally rides --
You may have met him? Did you not
His notice instant is --
The Grass divides as with a Comb,
A spotted Shaft is seen,
And then it closes at your Feet
And opens further on --
He likes a Boggy Acre --
A Floor too cool for Corn --
But when a Boy and Barefoot
I more than once at Noon
Have passed I thought a Whip Lash
Unbraiding in the Sun
When stooping to secure it
It wrinkled And was gone --
Several of Nature's People
I know, and they know me
I feel for them a transport
Of Cordiality
But never met this Fellow
Attended or alone
Without at tighter Breathing
And Zero at the Bone.
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BOOKS: Kingdom of Fear by Hunter S. Thompson
Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century by Hunter S ThompsonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
Kingdom of Fear is part memoir and part commentary on the state of America at the turn of the millennium. As a memoir, it explores Thompson’s bid for Sheriff, his arrest and judicial proceedings for drug and explosives charges that resulted from a “he said / she said” accusation that did not warrant charges in and of itself, a wild and wooly road-trip through Nevada, and Thompson’s position at the center of an investigation of a “threat” on the life of actor, Jack Nicholson.
As a commentary on the decline of America it discusses the battle for Grenada, a trip to Cuba, 9-11 and its aftermath, and the book revisits the ’68 Democratic Convention. It’s all written in Thompson’s drug-fueled Gonzo style, making it incredibly entertaining to read even as the hard walls between fact and fiction seem to dissolve. While the factualness might be at times in question, there is always a kind of truth that can only be received from those who’ve tossed off the shackles of societal convention and are willing to tell it as it is — even the embarrassing bits (especially the embarrassing bits.)
It’s not for those who take life and authority figures too seriously, but otherwise it’s a tremendously compelling and sometimes hilarious in its depiction of pre- and post-Y2K America.
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PROMPT: Motivation
The need to break free of the program -- e.g. to be master of fear & anger, not slave to them.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 