Journal #25 Fear

Fear is an important element in stories. It comes from suspense, the unknown, darkness, and really a lot more. There is a whole genre of movies based around fear, and these scary movies do pretty well. But it is not a positive emotion; it is very negative in nature. When a person experiences fear they are not happy, joyful, or in a good mood. Nevertheless it is still a necessary part of humanity because it brings a lot of other effects. Fear can inspire or cause people to do things they would not do otherwise. Most people are scared of the norms in the world of fear such as spiders, snakes, heights, and sometimes darkness. As John F. Kennedy said "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself", but most people have much more to be afraid of. I really have no fear of spiders or snakes unless they are very large and dangerous, but usually they are just harmless. I have no problem with heights or darkness either. The only real prominent fear that I have, although it is pretty weird, is birds. For some reason I have always had this strange fear. It is fine when birds are farther away, but is just an irrational fear. I do not expect them to attack or anything, but it is more of just having a bird nearby or touching them. But even though this is a fear, I will still not freak out from it. I will just be a little uneasy in the situation. It is really weird when people have these irrational fears like arachnophobia. Especially when a big man is frightened but a tiny spider. It does not seem to make sense, but it still happens. The world might be a better place without fears, but, although there is no way of knowing, it would probably be different. It could change the way people react to things, so it is an important part of society.