let us talk about fear at several points in most of our lives fear proves itself to be the primary motivating factor and intense fear grows we respond with action and see some results the results may be good for us or not in either case the actions were motivated by fear rather than by some joyful self expression in a free society as seen in disney movies often the unfolding of our characters natural talents does not happen one of the most intense fears of our culture is the fear poverty that fear is often instilled early in childhood deliberately by parents who believe they are doing us a favor large and wonderful church and bill view organizes work parties for parents and children traveling to mexico and central america the stated purpose is to aid and inspire the little brown children who have no shoes or schools or indoor plumbing the actual purpose seems to be to scare the crap out of the children of belleview putting them face to face with intense poverty if charity was the actual goal the church could have saved all that airfare and help desperately poor people right here in washington state personal fears they come in all shapes and sizes we fear social acceptance we fear our own tempers we fear our wives we need to escape the house before we lose our minds and stab them with a knife we fear our health we buy expensive health insurance and lots of pharmaceuticals  how we respond to fear how little or how much we allow fear to motivate us that determines the quality of our lives that shapes the economic educational and social aspects of our lives and how about our spiritual lives are we afraid to talk to god how about artistic lives do we believe ourselves to be artistic morons only capable of doing things on a microsoft system  or the more advanced on an apple system this fear prevent us from growth in all areas unrelated to money to live without fear would be foolish there are often good reasons to be afraid there are always people ready and willing to harass you and take all your money i'm not talking about thugs i'm talking about governments and pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies and oil companies the list is rather lo this leads to a discussion of larger fears the fears of nations nations usually want to govern themselves and not be bullied by neighbors nations often want to self identity they do not wish to be overrun with immigrants at times that it's prudent to consider just how we as individuals in the larger society of great america are used in the service of other people's fear i met a man who flew a plane over cambodia he pushed the buttons to drop hundreds of bobs there was no fear in his mind at the time it was doing his job as ordered by his president he did not consider the results of the fears that let us president to drop the bombs until he saw the photos years later after seeing the results after seeing the photos he rarely slept through the night and often woke in a cold sweat we have fears of being alone we want to help me to help us through life or to just cook for us so we have a nice meal when we come home from work those are a few places to start we also your neighbors we also hear the commentary of others we fear the aggressive male hating lesbian who lives next door she doesn't like that we're happy heterosexual couple she cannot conceive of a happy heterosexual couple that woman certainly must be put down in some way she's been seduced she's bad force just smile and laugh and enjoy her life