Fear
“Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration…”
For as long as humans have roamed the earth, fear of loss or failure or death has been with us. Rich or poor, primitive or civilized the fear will come.
What’s different today is that we’ve lost track of the tools we once fostered to fight fear when she makes her appearance. “What tools?”, you ask.
The kind of tools originally forged around campfires under starlight. Cherished tools, improved and embellished and then passed on to the next generation. The tool we’re talking about is Story.
Well crafted stories are weapons. Embedded within them are the ideals and values of a people. The right story can be an instruction manual, a suit of armor, and a lance all in one.
It wasn’t that long ago that epic poems like The Iliad or Beowulf were not just read, but part of the collective consciousness ready to be wielded when fear strikes. Long gone now, when you mention Homer to anyone under 50 today, the odds are good they assume you’re talking about Homer Simpson.
The heroes of those stories took the brunt of great challenges and eventually came to stand steadfast in the face of life. These characters, who we see parts of in ourselves, inspire and guide us to face the fear head-on. And it’s not just facing fear. They show us what’s possible. They raise a standard and we want to follow their lead and push past our limits to see what’s next.
While not an epic poem, one of the stories that delivers the goods is The Count of Monte Cristo…
A classic story
The man who would become The Count of Monte Cristo was imprisoned in the Chateau d’If for 14 years. Each day was as painful as the last.
He had been set up. Betrayed by a friend and falsely imprisoned. Treason, they said. All just for promising Napoleon Bonaparte he’d deliver a personal letter to a friend.
Unbeknownst to our man, Edmond Dantes, the letter contained secret information for a sort of aide de camp of Napoleon.
And, this exchange of information would aid Bonaparte in raiding France after being exiled to the island of Elba.
Before his imprisonment, Edmond was building a wonderful life for himself at the age of 19. He had recently been promoted to captain of the merchant ship Le Pharaon after the death of captain Leclère
And, to make matters better for the young man, he was about to marry the woman he loved, Mercedes.
Betrayal
His rapid success brought envy and hatred to a fellow seaman (Danglars), and even to Edmond’s best friend, Fernand Mondego.
Fernand wanted Mercedes and Danglars wanted to be captain of Le Pharaon.
Once it was discovered that Dantes held a letter from Napoleon, Mondego and Danglars seized the opportunity to report Edmond to a government official.
These 3 men then conspired together to have Edmond imprisoned for the sake of fulfilling their personal desires.
Without trial, Dantes was sent to the Chateau d’If where he would receive his first lashing upon being introduced to his life-long cell.
Pain
Every day of every week, of every month, of every year was filled with never-ending fear, sorrow, and torment for Edmond.
What will come of my family? Of Mercedes?
The lashings continued at the anniversary of his imprisonment year after year…
The words carved into the wall of his cell by a former prisoner once gave him hope, but now, the words only inspired anger:
Fear had consumed him. Despair had conquered him.
Hope
If it weren’t for an old priest who climbed into Dantes’ cell after miscalculating the direction of his escape tunnel out of the prison, Edmond would have let himself wither away…
Six years had passed since Edmond first walked through the door of his cell. Now, he spent the next eight years as a patron to the priest.
Dantes would keep him company, entertain his philosophical discussions, and help him dig a new tunnel. In return, the priest would teach him how to write, how to read, how to fight, mathematics, and economics.
Growth
The passage of time brought forth a metamorphosis in Edmond’s character. Each year he became more and more unrecognizable.
Backed by a new burning desire to escape the Chateau d’If and exact revenge on all those who destroyed him, Dantes became a man of focus, persistence, and sheer will.
So as not to spoil the entire story, I’ll simply summarize what happened:
Edmond escaped prison, miraculously became wealthy and powerful, and…he achieved several of his goals.
He conquered fear and lived the rest of his life well.
A story for you, a story for us all
Hopefully you’re never betrayed by your best friend, imprisoned, and subjected to years of physical and psychological torture.
But who knows…life is strange.
What is guaranteed, however, is change. And with that change you are bound to encounter obstacles which invoke fear.
Perhaps a family member dies, a spouse leaves you, a health scare, or you lose everything you have in a failed business.
It doesn’t even have to be as dramatic of an occurrence as those things…
Maybe it’s something as simple as making an unpopular choice that brings ridicule or scorn from people you love. Or the fear of doing the new thing that must be done. The unknown ahead of you and the future so uncertain.
Either way, if the fear isn’t with you today, we all know it could arrive at any moment.
What matters is our actions, our attitude.
You see, the old priest, as amazing as he was, couldn’t have saved Edmond alone. Edmond needed to begin to see for himself a way through his fear and stand up on his own.
Opportunities for overcoming fear can present themselves in the form of a person, event, or situation - stories all.
The 6 fears
Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich which has sold more than 100 million copies wrote another book that fewer people are familiar with…
For years, this book went unpublished due to the outrage it could have caused among extremely religious people.
The book, which Napoleon titled “Outwitting the Devil” illustrated the hardships and fear that Hill encountered in his life.
And, in the book he transcribed conversations that he claimed to have had with the Devil. Wherein he came to the conclusion (through questioning the Devil) that there are 6 primary fears that the Devil uses to drive us toward idleness and inaction.
The 6 fears as stated in the book:
Fear of poverty
Fear of criticism
Fear of illness
Fear of loss of love
Fear of growing old
Fear of death
Regardless of whether you are religious or not, if you pay close attention to the root from which your fear stems, you’ll probably realize that it falls in the category of at least one of these 6 fears.
My favorite quote about dealing with fear doesn’t come from an epic poem or even from the great Alexandre Dumas. It’s from Dune. It goes like this:
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
Excellent article and so what I needed to hear today. Thanks for posting this!!
“What matters is our actions, our attitude.” Yes! And a wonderfully written article presenting points that are worth repeating regularly. My dad presented me with a copy of “Think and Grow Rich” when I was growing up, and it has stood me in good stead throughout my life. And, now, I shall have to look up “Outwitting the Devil” … one of the author’s titles I apparently missed! Keep it going, Maxim Benjamin Smith … I admire the great work and writing you are doing.