“Death and Taxes”

Fear. All our lives, from early childhood to old age, we are conditioned by, and react to,  fear of something.

When we are young, our mothers warn us that if we masturbate, our nose will grow long. Oh, wait, no, that’s that Pinocchio dude. He lied to Geppetto about spanking the monkey. Is this how we got the term “Woodie”, as in, “I’ve got a huge woodie right now “.

Another childhood fear-mongering device meant to stop a bad habit. “Tommy, you keep picking your nose like that and someday you won’t be able to pull your finger out”.

If we are unfortunate enough to be raised in a religious family, from early childhood through most of adulthood, we are hammered/conditioned with the “Hell Fire & Brimstone” bullshit, and “Sin” of any kind, the “Thou Shalt Nots”, are pretty specific about what we can and can’t do to avoid hell. Nobody is perfect, so I guess if you believe that crap, we ALL are doomed to die and go to hell.

I think the Ten Commandments ARE a good starting point for just using a little common sense in our everyday lives.

In our early childhood years, fear, and how we handled/adapted to it, played a major role in forming our relationship and understanding of ourselves and others.

Fear of that bully from the sixth grade beating me up on the playground was a major hurdle for me to overcome.

Of course, if you’re in the fourth grade like I was, telling the 6th grade bully  that he’s a fucking pervert who likes to fuck sheep and that he’s going to hell didn’t stop him from giving me an ass beating. I guess I had overridden the “Fear” factor at that point. Was I crazy or just plain stupid?

The following day WAS quite a bit different.

Although I had conquered my fear the previous day, and with two black eyes, a broken tooth, and sore ribs, I had taken my beating in stride, everyone was shocked at what happened the next day.

Sure enough, the next day, first recess came and there he was. The twice as big as me bully waiting for me by the swing-sets, this time with a crowd of kids gathered to watch my next ass-whooping. The word HAD spread through the school that I was going to get my ass whooped again.

Now, again, I wasn’t really scared, but I still hurt from yesterday. I slowly walked towards the bully as he was screaming at me like a giant parrot on meth, “I’m going to kill you this time, you little shit”.

As I got closer I said, “Dude, everyone is sick and tired of your bullshit, and I’m going to put an end to it here in exactly 17 seconds. Oh, and I almost forgot. We watched you fucking one of your sheep last month”.

What happened next surprised the shit out of the bully and the gallery of the thirsting for more blood kids.

I didn’t accelerate my pace, and as I reached him, and before he could lunge at me, I planted my right foot deep and hard into his crotch.

He screamed and fell to the ground. The crowd gasped, then cheered. Mr. Bully laid there on the ground clutching his nuts crying as all of us walked away.

Recess was over, so we all walked back to our classrooms. That is, everyone except for the bully.

He never did come back inside that day. He just disappeared.

Summer vacation was two weeks away. The bully had  finally graduated from the 6th grade and in the fall, he started junior high in Coon Rapids.

After that last incident I Sometimes wondered if he was still fucking sheep.

My buddies and I walked by the sheep rancher’s farm several times throughout the summer and never saw him put on those hip boots again. I had heard that the kick to his nuts that my stepfather had shown me the night before, really fucked him up for a long time, giving those poor sheep a break I reckon. About a year later I heard that a ninth grader had become our bully’s worst nightmare. I digress.

Back to how fear can rule your life, and the difference between fear and respect. I beat my fear of that grade school bully and gained respect. The bully now respectfully feared me. He for sure didn’t think I was just stupid, but he may have thought I might be a crazy dude.

“There is no respect in fear, but fearlessness will always be respected. Unless of course, your lack of fear is out of stupidity or insanity on your part” – Dr. T. C. Saxe, DD, RSISHE

In other words, stupidity doesn’t conquer fear, you’re just plain stupid. Same thing with insanity.

When a world leader is ordering the genocide killing of thousands of innocent people, he looks so brave and confident, “Fearless” in his speeches. That’s pretty fucking insane AND stupid if you ask me.

Like John Lennon famously said, “Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it”.

Conquering fear is not always easy. Life itself can be full of fears. Each fear is different and takes time to develop a sense of fearlessness in each case. Fear of flying. Fear of drowning because you don’t know how to swim. Fear of heights. Fear of spiders, etcetera. Each fear we face can be overcome, with time and patience, and the right combination of training/therapy….AND, attitude.

Fearlessness can sometimes be confused with bravery, and sometimes bravery is mistaken for stupidity or insanity.

Soldiers are trained up to the threshold of insanity. To run up a Hill screaming and bayoneting the enemy along the way is great if you’re on the winning side, and borders on insanity. And…. you’re celebrated as a “Brave” hero as some general pins a medal on your chest.

Let me ask you, what’s so fearlessly brave about killing others? I know that’s what a soldier is supposed to do, but it all seems to be insane to me. War is insane. That kind of fearlessness is insane.

Fear of death is something that a person may feel when they get older, as they begin to experience more and more problems with their health. As they say, only two things are certain, “Death and Taxes”.

If you’re old and also the religious type, the fear of going to hell is an additional burden on your psyche that you don’t need. Personally, I have no fear of death, and I’m not an idiot or insane, I’m an Atheist after studying all of mankind’s “religions” for more than three decades.

This essay was brought to you by those wonderfully visionaries at IRTHKOIN. The Evolutionary Crypto-Currency coming soon to your laptop, computer, and cellphone, stay tuned for news.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Peace & Abide, La paz y la morada, السلام والالتزام , שלום ושמירה, Paix et Demeure, Խաղաղությունը եւ մնալը, Мир и пребывание,, 平和と遵守, 和平與恪守, Aştî û Abad, صلح و عبید, Fred och Abide, Kapayapaan at Patuloy, Frieden und Bleiben, Mir i Ostanite, शांति और निवास, Hòa bình và ở lại, Мир и Абиде, שלום און בלייַבן, สันติภาพและการปฏิบัติ, Mir in bivanje,