Politics & Lifestyle

Face to Face with Fear

By Nthabiseng

I’d like to think that it’s because I have not been on this earth long enough, it at least leaves room for a possible future encounter with such individuals so I will not say never but in the years that I’ve lived and the people that I’ve met, I have not yet come across a single person who lives a complete and utterly fearless life. I know at this point a few might be tempted to object and say: “hey, I live a life without fear!”. For those few (hopefully who are not lying to themselves to dispute my point) bear in mind, we have not yet met and if we have… call me later and I’ll give you a detailed list of your fears since you are clearly in denial.

Think about it though; depending on what you value in life, the thought of loosing it instinctively evokes fear. Be it fear of loss, fear of pain, fear of failure, fear of loneliness, fear of change or even fear of death, at some point we are all bound to come face to face with some form of  fear. The important lessons however is not to allow that fear to then cripple us and stop us from living or limit the way in which we live our lives. So to all those restricted by their fears I think it’s time to do something about it. In case you are not aware the whole world is in motion and it would be a shame to be a person or two short because they granted fear the power to rule their lives. Can you imagine where we would be if all the heros and sheros of our time were too scared to do or say anything about anything??? Having planted that seed of thought in your minds I’d like to encourage you to demask your fear, look it in the eye and let it know who’s boss.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: The piece below is entitled Beginnings of a being. In my understanding the mind has a natural tendency to fear the unknown so if one humanizes that unknown element, it then strips it of the power it possesses over the mind. In the same way, giving your fear a face can allow you to look it in the eye ie. come face to face with fear. Last but not least, I’d like to challenge you to chew on that.

Give it a name and a face will follow, body- limbs-hands and feet, the beginnings of a being.

Give it a name and a face will follow, birthing a physical presence with a warm familiar face carry with it romanticized ideas of sincerity, a pair of seductively magnetic eyes

and a hypnotic yet strategic smile, housed by the juicy lips of a forbidden fruit.

A face to point and look straight in the eye as we wag our fingers and voice our grievances.

A face to direct the clouds of anger and floods of tears making up the storms brewing inside.

Give it a surname, a clan name that our widowed mothers can curse at with their cultured tongues,

as they sing it negative praises, violently forcing it out of the whispering shadows that lay behind closed doors and into the bright of the sun to wear it’s new found face in shame.

Castrate its immortality by breathing it life and instill in it a fear of death,

leaving it as powerless as a hairless Samson, at the mercy of our replenished spirits.

Give it a name and a face will follow, body- limbs- hands and feet, the beginnings of a being.

Give it a name, a face, a body and it shall be exposed.

No longer to move among us a nameless faceless taker of lives,

hacking us off in our prime like a harvest crop and grinning at our demise as we hit dust to ashes and ashes to dust, but to walk in full view of all the nations in its insignificant new form.

Give it a name and the rest will follow,

giving rise to an era where no bliss can come from ignorance.

Because still before those blind turned eyes, death is alive and well

and continues to feast on the lives of the ignorant, the arrogant and the innocent alike.

Give it a name and a face will follow.

body, limbs, hands and feet, the beginnings of a being.

Given a name, an identity, we shall know, name and face our enemy.

A name, a face, body- limbs- hands and feet, the beginnings of a being,

the beginning of an end to it’s rain,

the beginning of an end to it’s being,

the beginning of a new beginning.