The Fear is in Not Knowing

You’re in a pitch black room, can’t see anything. You can only hear wind and leaves outside. You smell boxes. Finally a low-watt light bulb comes to life, giving the room a low, orange light. You can’t see everything, but at least you get an idea where you are. You are in what seems to be a stock room. You turn your head to find what looks like a corpse wrapped in cloth above a wooden table, partially hidden by
stacks of boxes and other things. But of course, you’re not sure; it may be a pile of cloths or a guitar case among other things. Then you here a child’s voice, not sure if a girl’s or a boy’s, saying, “The fear is in not knowing” over and over again. You find that you can’t move you body, but you can turn your head. There is no one else in that room, but the voice is gradually getting louder. The light bulb starts to flicker. You feel your arm move, but it’s not in your control. Slowly, you reach for that unknown thing wrapped in cloth…
Then you wake up. What a dream.

I had this dream a week ago. I can’t stop thinking about it. I can still feel the tension I had in that dream
Because it tells me of an important thing in this life: fear.

Once, I told Ralph that I am afraid of the dark. He told me I am not; instead, he said I am afraid of what is in the dark.

We fear the things we don’t know or understand. How else will you explain our fear of love, pain or death?

Why do you think so many people are afraid of ghosts? Their difficulty understanding the thought that there appeared in front of them a person long dead which isn’t possible is why they fear ghosts. People are afraid because they don’t know the how and why and what happens next of such events.

Why do you think people fear losing someone they love? You’d often hear, “natatakot akong mawala ka”. Why? Same as above, we are afraid because we don’t understand why he/she has to leave, how he/she will leave, and what happens to you and him/her after he/she leaves.

Why do you think some people fear love? Same thing, it is something they don’t fully understand. We are afraid to be hurt or hurt again because we don’t understand why we need to be hurt, we don’t know how we’ll be hurt and what happens when we get hurt or hurt again.

Observe that the people who have an explanation are those usually unafraid. If you know someone who doesn’t fear ghosts or anything, they’d probably give you an explanation that suits their intellect and personality. You may not be swayed by their reason, but hey, it works for them. Point is, they kind of have an idea or an explanation and that’s enough for them to not be afraid. People who understand why they have to be hurt probably doesn’t fear it enough to survive the pain that goes with it because they know that’s a way to learn.

How not to fear? Know and understand. As human, we are given the capacity to process the things around us. Of course, not everything can be understood; hence we cannot be absolutely fearless. But if we don’t try to understand our world and the people in it, we may even fear not only love, pain and death, but also life.

Fear isn’t a bad thing. It’s just a reminder that we should try to reach out to the world more and understand it.