The Stray Cat at the Door
A Metaphor for Fear
[Excerpted
from a discussion about making an internet discussion
list private over the fear of spammers....]
Fear is insidious.
It is like the proverbial stray cat.
Unwanted
But you feed it.
Then you let it in your house.
Then on the furniture.
Then in your bed.
It becomes your constant
companion
And yet it still wants more of you.
Fear is corrosive.
It attacks the person.
It is passed on to friends and loved ones.
Once entrenched into a culture it is hugely destructive.
It develops momentum with the tacit approval of those
within the culture because they too have become afraid.
Fear is the absence of:
Creativity
Kindness
Love
Beauty
Expansion
Unlimited abundance
Receptivity
These are all the things
that we bring to our internet world.
We wish to trade this for suspicion?
To vet all strangers as hostile until proven otherwise?
What exactly do we have to be afraid of?
Those who wish to be afraid
can use a surrogate email address.
They can disguise their names.
They need not post their phone numbers.
Their geography can be private.
Let them keep their fear to themselves.
We only have two enemies
in life – fear and guilt.
Neither is external – they both reside within.
For myself I wish not that
someone else to censor my world for my own protection.
I much rather be open and welcoming.
To everyone.
The cost of doing otherwise is too high.
There is a stray cat at
our door. |
