The Taste of Fear
Good Morning. Here is the latest blog post from Michael Tibollo:
On March 4, 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, in his First Inaugural Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt said,
“The only thing we have to fear is fear it’self-namless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
Have you ever looked into the face of fear? Have you ever seen fear in someone’s eyes? How does it feel to be so helpless that you are paralyzed from taking any action to change?
I read an article some time ago about a man that had been swept by the current of the Niagara River to the edge of the waterfall. He was desperately holding onto a branch which was the only element securing his life from a plunge to certain death. A fireman, tethered to several fellow firemen jumped into the river and saved the man’s life, risking his own. When the fireman was pulled out of the river, one reporter asked him why he risked his own life to save the life of a stranger. The answer was, “I looked into his eyes and I could see that he wanted to live.”
In this case, when the two men were pushed to an extreme, each had to turn fear into action. Both fearing death, they found the inner strength to get out of harm’s way.
Courageous actions are born to people that turn fear into action. In other words, every individual fears something. Do nothing and the fear persists, often becoming a haunting demon, bigger than life. By challenging a fear one can overcome it and turn retreat into advance.
The words of the fireman ring true to me when I look into the eyes of the residents at Caritas.
A recovering addict in the proper environment learns to overcome his fears. The fears of recovering addicts are no different than the fears we all face each day in our lives. Unfortunately, with an addict, a substance becomes a way to cope with the fears. The fears we all face are often born from deeper mental or emotional problems. In a therapeutic community, the problems are identified and the residents learn to face those fears and develop skills so that they can cope with them without drugs.
The parents of the residents share a similar fear. They have the same look in their eyes as do their son’s. They want their children to overcome the addiction and live a normal life. Their love often paralyses them to inaction. To change this, they must first recognize that there is a problem and then, they must learn to face it. The paralysis comes from a lack of understanding, the hope that something will improve. Unfortunately, without intervention, nothing will change. Through family groups, parents learn to face their fears and turn them into actions which save lives. Like the fireman, we must learn to recognize this desire to live in the eyes of our neighbour and find ways to turn it into action.
This lesson can be best summed up by Lt. John B. Putnam Jr. when he wrote,
“Courage is not the lack of fear but the ability to face it.”
Michael Tibollo
March 14, 2010
