In Loving Memory

As a general reflection, I'm struck with the idea that has emerged in the discourse that fear is both universal and individual. The universal aspects of fear are what we discuss in class regularly. In the employment context it is the idea that in our market economy, any individual worker who does not work for himself, no matter how much he believes himself to be essential to his organization, has absolutely no guarantee and often little recourse should the powers-that-be decide to cut him loose. People may rationalize that fear away in a variety of ways reflective of the level of power that the person perceives himself as having in his organization or in broader society, but the tension is there nonetheless. Perhaps another example of a universal fear, though not one that we've particularly stressed in class, is the fear of what we can't know or fathom - for example, fear of death or what it means not to be alive (even though, continuing with the Harry Potter theme, Dumbledore would remind us that death is just "the next great adventure.")

I think universal fears are interesting because the extent to which we recognize them as influential in our own lives probably speaks to our willingness to address individual fears, which are not necessarily systemic or a function of our biology but rather come from our upbringings and what makes us unique. Skyler, I thought you made a powerful point when you acknowledged that what scares you individually is the process of fighting and failing. To credibly understand what you fear, and then to commit to not rationalizing that fear away, requires knowledge of yourself and conviction that you can address that fear, or at least learn from it. For my part, I've been working for so long for goals that have been set up for me (good grades, good test scores, good school, good starter job, good law school, good law job, good house, ad nauseum) that the only fear I actively recognize is not accomplishing that next thing. I am in a position where I have been achieving for the sake of it for so long that I can't coherently tell you what I fear, besides falling off the path and having to clear my own way through the forest.

-- JessicaWirth - 28 Mar 2012