“Forget about enlightenment,
Sit down wherever you are,
An listen to the wind singing in your veins.” – John Welwood.
One of the wisest things I ever read about fear was a quote by a blind French writer named Jacques Lusseyran, who wrote that fear was the only thing that truly prevented him from seeing.
Fear blinds and blocks the truth, and often kept me from building the confidence and clarity in the life I am trying to live.
The less fear I had, the more I did, the better I do.
More than anything, fear blinds.
As our world changes all around us, and we are asked to understand things we can’t understand and cope with profound and lasting change, every day in many ways, I remind myself that fear is a matter of geography, it is very real and yet it is not real at all.
It is just a space to cross. I can walk right through it, and it is powerless to stop me but too powerful for me to dare to ignore it.
As I sense the fear and confusion all around me, I remind myself to look across the field to the light and color on the other side. And to just cross that space.
It is easy to see and easy to find. It is always there. Stepping out of fear and into the light is the awakening, my path to the other place.
I was startled today to read (understand … “get”) the speed with which this thing tavels. Three weeks ago people didn’t think Italy had much of a problem with the virus. Today the epidemiologists estimate there are 15,000 CONFIRMED cases in the northern part of that country. (They have tests). They also estimate that number doubles every three to five days. I tried doing the math but quit when I got to 120,000 to 250,000 in three weeks. … Which means by mid-April. I stopped then because that scared me. Only about 10%-15% of those cases are serious— which I presume means being sick enough to have to go to bed. I didn’t want to know how they extrapolate the mortality rate from there. If people here have begun hoarding toilet paper or whatever now when it doesn’t seem to be dangerous to us, I’m leery of what our landscape will look like a month from now. I’m probably just a nervous old woman. I think you’re right that the fear of this thing is more dangerous than the virus itself.
The fear isn’t dangerous.
I’m 69, and until further notice, I’m doing what I can to avoid contact with others. What’s the point in gambling with my life if I can just be careful for a short time until more is known?
Don’t let the people with cavalier and dismissive attitudes make you feel guilty for doing what you think you need to do in the face of the unknown.
But some fears are justified and others are not … the ones that are just products of the imagination. Maybe that’s where the confusion comes in? Figuring out what is real and what isn’t.
Sorry Jon, there are 3 tp manufacturers in USA, Georgia Pacific, Proctor & Gamble and Kimberly Clark, so
rumors about China being only manufacturer of tp are incorrect.
Don’t be sorry, L, it’s just what the manager said, 80 percent of what I read every day is not correct. I am neither surprised nor upset. Either way, there is no toilet paper on supermarket shelves…