Fear is the Arrowhead of My Life's Spear

In the words of Yoda, "Fear is the path to the dark side.  Fear leads to anger.  Anger leads to hate.  Hate leads to suffering."  That is one of the lines I remember most from Star Wars.  I don't know why; I guess it touches something deep and primal within each and everyone of us.  What I want to pinpoint on is though, is the part about fear.  Not about where it leads us, but about how it gives us the drive to move along any "path" at all.

You see we fear the unknown, something that holds many possibilities.  Fear is what makes us take risks and what propels us away from the bad experiences, onto the good.  Sometimes I think of how lunatics are described.  A wild look in their eyes and a drive to do things they wouldn't normally do.  But then those who are afraid are sometimes said to have that same wild look and you can't say that those with fear in their hearts aren't possessed to do crazy things.

Perhaps fear can be an excuse for insanity.  But now I am back to square one.  Yoda is right; fear leads to suffering, madness, the dark side.  I just can't accept that.  This past week I have been more afraid than I care to admit, and about multiple things too.  All of my fears would seem silly to anybody else.  Somehow though, I am able to tell myself that I did the brave thing in accepting that I am afraid.  I suppose, if I had the courage, I could face my fears or turn them against others like Batman did in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins.  And then I think of those who go off to war, or are in some other peril.  I am sure they are all afraid, but it is the ones who let fear push them from behind, acknowledge its there, and resist the urge to look over their shoulder for the boogieman that keep their heads.  Those who run from their own fear, are the ones who run into death, go mad.

Maybe Yoda believes that death is the only way to escape the fear that would otherwise propel you to do great things.  Or that we should never have any to begin with.  Isn't learning how to defeat the things we fear the way we learn to overcome fear itself and finally be the brave heroes Yoda wants us to be?  How can anybody be deemed courageous if the entire world knows no fear?  As for myself, I know I would never read a book or watch a movie in my life if I wasn't afraid of my own life.  The lives of others is the only place I can escape to, knowing for certain that the fears in those stories aren't real.  For me, there would be no exploration of other human minds.  No social interactions, eager questions, or even a blog if I wasn't afraid of my own thoughts.  And yet still sometimes, I end up bringing fears from novels and films into my own life and believing them.  That's when I get my real motivation.