Fear

My plants are not afraid.

I regularly come at them armed with all manner of sharp objects and there is not a quiver, no tears, no wringing of the leaves.

All plants are this way. Redwood trees that have lived for thousands of years stand patiently while creatures 1/1000th their size chop away at them, cutting off their life sustaining mechanisms, and let them fall – sometimes just for the brief thrill of the fall sometimes to make picnic tables.

The cynical will say that, duh, they have no central nervous system, no brain, not thought process etc. etc. etc.
True enough. But why not? Why do they have no capacity for fear while it often dominates our lives.

I’ve decided its because they can’t do anything about what threatens them. We can. We are not held in one place. We, and the vast majority of animals, can generally have some influence on our own survival with some kind of motion. But to get us into motion, se need a motivator. Fear is the answer.

Over the eons, clearly he who has developed fear has survived – to reproduce other little beings who have inherited this capacity.

Traditionally fear has motivated animals into a “fight or flight” mode – response denied to our herbaceous friends. This reaction is immediate, and basic to animal life and it takes significant maturity and courage to get beyond it.

At a recent holiday get together, my 18 month old granddaughter, lost in a sea of legs, cozied up to some denim clad ones she assumed were her dad’s. When an upward glance revealed her uncle Sam instead she made a quick spin around and flew down a hallway as fast as her 10 inch legs could propel her. At this age she had the wisdom to know fighting was not an option, her prospects were no better in unknown parts of the house.

Her reaction was primal. It was a visceral reaction to the unknown and the strange ,that had kept her ancestors alive long enough to reproduce. No small thing there.

At the same time, it was unnecessary as she learned over the course of the evening. Not only was her Uncle Sam no one to be feared but he could be fun. It took courage on her part to find this out beginning with the courage to be in the same room as him, warily and then enthusiastically share a good game of “peek-a-boo” and finally engage in a free for all “chase” around the coffee table. The ultimate acceptance, of course, came with the “breaking of bread” (in this case a carrot stick) together. There is something about eating together that brings about bonding.

Fear, while clearly a gift from god than can preserve life, unfortunately brings with it challenges that can be just ironically threaten life.

If we do not show the courage that my granddaughter did, if we are unwilling to face our fear and evaluate them fear breeds hatred and hatred can make us do all kinds of dreadful things.

Fear, and ultimately hatred, of the maggots in my compost pile very nearly caused me to take rash action that would have been detrimental to both these little creatures and myself. To overcome the fear, I had to overcome ignorance, I had to broaden my outlook, I had to include brown wiggly maggots within the context of God’s creation. Note – I did not have to find them appealing. But to assume I had a right because of my mindset, my pupa prejudice, to eliminate the source of my discomfort is a big leap and I’m pretty sure that god would not approve – metaphorically speaking of course.

But OMG how we humans do this. Diversity is not something any of us is initially good at. Again, for good reason. Fear of the different is deep in our genes. But we have some other gifts floating around that brain of ours – the gifts of reason and courage. In my experience, if I use them I will

This is not a concern in my little garden. Nobody is fearful of anybody else