Fearless

There is something about being afraid that enables revealing conversations and behavior. Lately fear is all over the place and its becoming a more routine part of our everyday lives.

There is a palpable, almost casual tension in just passing a stranger on the street or going to the market for groceries. Distance is a physical conception but is more visceral in its metaphoric form. Degrees and sidewalks and calculus and strips of tape inform our distance. We are afraid of the distance and the tension and the fear of the notion of one another's fear.

In times like these it is hard to blame the stranger or ourselves for projecting and extending the tension because what else is there -- our ancient amygdala -- the best part of us. Its raw for self-preservation, health, tribal welfare, friends you no longer know, a life that existed before, the abrupt exorcism of things you thought meant something. The conversation you confront is one of profound lucidity. It is a conversation about your death, your survival -- an internal conversation we tend to evade but a conversation profoundly worth having.

Fear exposes us and takes us to places we never thought we would go, never wanted to be. Fear is our framework; our mirror. But as the tunnel narrows, there is only one direction. Remain open, go deeper, be ready, think through the problem, lean into the uncertainty and don't forget your humanity.