If nothing else, Hunter S. Thompson would feel right at home on Election Day 2020 – because there’s plenty of fear and loathing being peddled out in the world.
Personally, fear drives me inward – like I’m huddling against the cold. All of my thoughts turn back towards me and I tend to live inside my head more and more. As someone who already leans more towards the introvert end of the spectrum, this isn’t totally unexpected. It’s also not the healthiest thing either.
But after a good night of sleep, nine miles on the exercise bike, and a couple gulps of coffee… I’m ready to look outward. And no, it’s not through zen-colored glasses (although the smudges do lend a bit of an ink-washed sumi feeling to the world). And yes, it’s still just as jacked up as I left it yesterday.
Don’t let the bazillion commercials and signs and honking cars and whatever else be the things that determine your mindset today. Don’t let it kill your motivation or resolve to vote.
There’s a lot of verses from the Bible that deal with fear, but I think this is the one I’m going to be thinking about today:
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:7
Why that verse in particular? Because it includes love and “of a sound mind” (or discipline). There’s a part that we have to cultivate in ourselves and also a piece that we need to cultivate in the world around us. It’s both inward and outward looking, which is a balance we could all use.
And because I teased it in the title, here’s something for the sci-fi geeks out there as well…
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
The litany against fear from Dune, by Frank Herbert