Whatever is manifesting externally is a sign of something propagating internally. Fear is a prayer for what I do not want to happen.
Fear 'set in motion trains of circumstances which brought us misfortune we felt we didn’t deserve. But did not we, ourselves, set the ball rolling?' So I set the ball (fear) in motion. How? Fear is the response to the perception of threat. The perception of threat involves two stages:
- Firstly, the establishment of a thing as being of value to me
- Secondly, the recognition that the thing is vulnerable to theft, destruction, or change.
In fact, anything that can be taken, eliminated, or altered will in fact depart, lapse, or mutate, and such theft, destruction, or change is simply a matter of time. Security in the world is sandbagging against rising oceans.
Fear is axiomatically the end result of valuing something that cannot be kept as it is. I've been trying to cup and keep air.
What then happens? The thing of value is supposed to bring peace. That's why I value it: because I think it will bring peace. But the valuing of it destroys peace. 'Things of value are death to peace of mind.' (Alice Thomas Ellis) 'If you want it, you can't have it. If you don't want it, you might get it.' (Cahuenga B)
But it's worse than that. I start acting in the world to keep as it is something that is vulnerable. This produces activity but no action. 'Until that time, I had rocking-chair sobriety: a great deal of motion, without going anywhere; a lot of activity, but not much action.' (Paul Martin)
That activity is the confusing and confounding movement of the inmates of an insane asylum whose days are filled with Things To Do, Activities To Structure Time, and other pointless pursuits to give the appearance of a structure in a world where nothing really happens. What is more, I will take a neutral situation that is not to my liking, and fix it, and fix it, until it's really broken. In engaging in pointless activities, I miss the Capital A Action that I am supposed to be taking, which is the real point of my life.