Living a life full of respect and devoid of fear

First off I need to apologize, I know that's lame, but I was quite sick yesterday, and decided sleeping and getting better was more important than getting a blog post out on time.  So, there's my apology and now on to more awesome things.

This might come as a shock to many of you, but I like to read.  I like to read a lot.  In fact, there is very little on this earth I enjoy doing more than reading.  I'll read anything, poetry, fiction, prose, non-fiction, newspapers, blog posts.  If it has good rhythm and an at least perfunctory attempt at good grammar and a reasonable story to tell you can find me reading it.  This is because I love stories, I feel like stories are one of the only ways to really experience what it is to be human.

In many of the stories I read I encounter a recurring theme.  That theme is the triumph over fear.  Sometimes the fear is ordinary, like a fear of heights, sometimes it's a magical fear that flows from a being or an object, and sometimes it's a completely irrational fear, like a fear of clowns.  This is good, because knowing what a person is afraid of is a great way to understand that person.  It won't give you the full picture, but it will tell you a lot.  That being said, fear is an emotion that destroys rational thought and thereby destroys that which makes us human.  It is natural to fear, but to fear to fall is just as bad as falling if in a different way.

Respect, on the other hand, goes hand in hand with what makes us human.  To respect something, to understand that it can destroy you and to treat it properly, is how we grow as human beings.  You cannot fear something you respect, because to truly fear something you can't understand it, and to truly respect something you must understand it, at least cursorily.

To live a life without fear is to live your life fully.  This is not to say we shouldn't respect the power of things.  I respect the lightning, I respect heights, I respect bears, but I do not fear these things.  I am in the process of replacing fear with respect, and now I have two fears left.  The point is, it is possible to live a life full of respect and without fear.  Difficult, but possible.

I will keep my two fears to myself. They're both major fears, and understandable from a certain standpoint, but they are also silly. On top of that, they are mine, not yours. I would not ask you to publicly bear your fears to the world. I have every confidence I will overcome them, and I will live my life without regrets, so that when I die I may pass from this plane with peace in my mind, joy in my heart, and a smile on my lips.

See you folks Friday. Until then, may the stars guard you, the moon guide you, and the wind be always at your back.