"All of us are born with a set of instinctive fears--of falling, of the dark, of lobsters, of falling on lobsters in the dark, or speaking before a Rotary Club, and of the words "Some Assembly Required."---- Dave Barry
I loved this and had to put it somewhere that I would keep tripping over it. This looks like as good a place as any! This is certainly food for thought. Someone hand me a bib and a nutcracker please.
I came upon this quote in the course of surfing after running a search on the word xenophobia. A friend used that word in an email today..so off I went. After reading the definition I decided that I am a xenoloveitup. I doubt that word will be found if you run a search, unless it brings you right back to this page.
A xenophobic is someone who has a fear of anything or anyone strange or foreign. It can also be hatred of what or who is foreign; at least that's my understanding of the word. Loosely translated it's called fear of the unknown. Fear of diversity. Fear of self. That's right. Fear of self. When we are afraid of someone or something we don't know anything about, it's ourselves we are frightened of. We don't know how to respond, so we react.
Walking into the unknown brings an instinct of fear to any of us. We call that anxiety. Anxiety occurs because our egos speak up to say, "Hold it! I don't know this! This is new to me! I don't now how to deal with this!" Anxiety is an emotional and somewhat physical response. It passes if we allow it to. Egos, when they are undisciplined, can keep us bound to a very tiny life, centered in what we know and are comfortable with. Egos are not very bright. In fact, I would dare to say they are stupid at times, for my definition of stupidity is the unwillingess to learn.
My ego is my sense of I. To allow myself to learn something new, part of my existing I has to give up the ghost. Learning changes the way I think and the way I perceive myself and life around me. Taking my I too seriously only keeps me down. There's nowhere to fall from down. It's a safe place, well lit by my light of "reason" where I can justify just about anything.
Anxiety will cause me to hesitate at times, but faith tends to remind me that it's temporary, so I sit quietly and let it pass. Then I am better able to turn off my light of reason, grab my nutcracker and bib, and hop right over the edge of the cliff into the unknown.
Heat up some butter, Folks! I'm going in! And I'll be back with some goodies to share! (Does anyone know the mating call for a lobster?)
