The Face of Fear

Between the angry voices and faces on TV and some of the reflections from people who drop by my office of late it seems that fear is becoming more infectious than the "swine" flu. The symptoms of the "fear virus" are not new. This dis-ease causes blindness. All of a sudden people can no longer see other people's point of view.

Fear then seeps into the voice box where language seems to be created but the truth is that the symptoms run much deeper. Language is a reflection of what is in the "heart" so fear does unseen damage to the soul. The emotional temperature rises and then a process begins which can be termed "the demonetization of the other." The "other" not only becomes wrong but becomes "bad."

Next, the ears become infected and the channels of listening become narrow and constricted so that the only voices that get in are the "like me" phrases and words. Somehow the fear virus quickly spreads even to the extremities and fingers become clinched around causes creating a fist so full that nothing can be received from outside.

I wonder what can be done about the spread of this "virus?" Hand sanitizers are now being seen everywhere for fear of the new strain of flu. Can we supply some kind of preventive "salve" to help resist the proliferation of fear?

I share with you a poem that means a lot to me:

The Place Where We Are Right
by Yehuda Amichai

From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.
The place where we are right
Is hard and trampled
Like a yard.
But doubts and loves
Dig up the world
Like a mole, a plow.
And a whisper will be heard in the place
Where the ruined
House once stood.

God save us from the fear virus. I think I'll go wash my hands now and also take a long deep breath.
bless you,
jody jseymour@davidsonumc.org