42 - GOTTA SEE IT TO BEAT IT

The Dragon can just use fear to mess with you or to really take you out. When fear overrules reason, it poisons your intellect. Studies have shown that 90% of people put under severe stress are not able to think clearly or solve simple problems. Creativity, insight, cool thinking and rational reflection that are all necessary for a measured response to a problem are severely impaired.

When fear poisons your spirit, the physiologic response can be the same as when bacteria poison the bloodstream: sweating, racing pulse, dry mouth, dizziness, even delirium. Your head gets a message that something is terribly wrong: you can almost smell it, then comes a strange brassy taste on the tongue and agitated feelings of need to do something but I don’t know what, need to run but don’t know where . The broadcaster, Tony Snow, while wrestling with colon cancer cautioned, "We need to get past anxiety. The mere thought of dying can send adrenaline flooding through our system. A dizzy, unfocused panic seizes you. Your heart pumps; your head swims. You think of nothing and swoon. You fear partings; you worry about the impact on family and friends. You fidget and get nowhere."  The fear, whatever flavor, is a big deal all on its own. You have to nail this one. Treatment of the cancer depends upon your controlling fear and running the bell lap well depends upon your defeating it.

KEEPING FEAR IN THE OPEN

Acute fears can be medicated so you will feel better and think better, but they don't go away. You have to still deal with them or they just go underground and become chronic which is when they are the most destructive. They can lie dormant like the seeds of knapweed tracked into the mountain meadow on hikers’ boots. Those wait for the warm rains of spring to germinate like the dormant fears lie in wait for the next sign of relapse. At the opportune moment, the seeds and the fears both burst forth into full bloom. The unseen roots of the knapweed give off a toxin that prevents healthy plants from germinating nearby and whole meadows are taken over and destroyed. When dormant fear germinates in anyone it can poison meaningful living, destroy dreams, squelch passions, spoil relationships, interfere with sleep and sap energy - all in all just drain the joy out of life. Don’t let your fears go underground. Find them, confront them, talk about them openly and get help dealing with them.

David understood the universal impact of the fear of death when he penned the 23rd Psalm writing, "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." His choice of metaphor is powerful and accurate. Death casts a long shadow.

 He didn't say the doorway of the shadow or the shadow of the pillar of death. He said the valley of the shadow of death. A valley is cast into shadow by a mountain.  The mountain is fear. While death from cancer takes but instant, its shadow extends back months and years. Walking that valley takes a long, often lonely time. Even friends and family at one’s side doesn't change the fact that dying is a singular business. Yet through the years I have noticed there are some who seemed to be neither afraid nor alone which sparked my curiosity. Again it was the Windrunners.