Fear is Life

Last week my family and I took a drive to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to spend a few days in the mountains and of course, Dollywood. (As an aside, if you enjoy amusement parks as much as I do, I simply can't recommend Dollywood enough. Great rides, perfectly sized, clean, affordable and beyond family friendly.)

My middle daughter, 12, has just started to develop a taste for rollercoasters and while she's not quite ready for the extreme ones like The Incredible Hulk, Wild Eagle and Rip Ride Rockit, she did muscle up the courage to go on an intense wooden coaster called Thunderhead.

As we were about to get on, I could see her anxiety and fear ratcheting up, and while I knew she wouldn't bail, I wanted to comfort her as much as I could without coddling. I turned to her and said, "You feel that sensation in your stomach? That's fear. But don't be scared because experiencing fear is how we know we're still alive. So think of fear as life."

You feel that sensation in your stomach? That's fear. But don't be scared because experiencing fear is how we know we're still alive. So think of fear as life.

When the coaster ended and she got off, my daughter showcased one of the largest smiles I've ever seen. In her mind, she conquered a coaster, but in my mind she conquered a fear - and lived a little bit more.

Since the pandemic started, we've been faced with a constant barrage of fear. Some of it justified, most of it not, but now that we are on the other side of it, it saddens me to see so many people still living in fear's shadow. While there are many legitimate things to be fearful of in this world, it's important every so often to take a minute and at least recognize that feeling fear is not only part of life, but a key reminder of it.

...feeling fear is not only part of life, but a key reminder of it.

Take my rollercoaster story for example. Imagine if the only coaster you ever road was Disney World's Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, a beautifully designed, smooth, mild thrill ride in Orlando, Florida. Sure, the first few times might be fear inducing (depending on your experience), but after the seventh time, would you really be fearful? While the ride might still be enjoyable after your tenth, twentieth or fiftieth time, I highly doubt it would be fear-inducing. You would learn every drop, turn and angle and eventually, riding the ride would be more "going through the motions" than actually experiencing a sense of thrill.

The great C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, "...free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata -of creatures that worked like machines- would hardly be worth creating."

A world of automata -of creatures that worked like machines- would hardly be worth creating.

The same concept can be applied to fear. A world without some fear, some risk, some dare, would hardly be worth living, right? While not to minimize the hundreds of fears we may all be facing on a given day, my point is simply that there is a lot of value in pausing for a moment and recognizing that fear is life and this realization might provide one with comfort, peace and even purpose.

You don't need to look too far or wide for other quotes, books, movies, songs and poems about overcoming the potentially paralyzing impact of fear, nor do I need to share the well-documented biochemistry reactions to living in a constant state of stress; all I encourage you to do is if you find yourself living a minute, an hour, a day - or longer - in a state of fear, take a deep breath and say the words, "fear is life". You might be surprised by how your mind reacts.

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