On Fear

I hate hand sanitizer. There, I’ve said it. I think it is the biggest crock of bullshit ever foisted on the consuming public. The only time I would even think of using hand sanitizer is if I was camping in the woods for days away from a water source. It actually makes my hands feel dirtier than if I had not used hand sanitizer at all. They feel sticky, clammy, and stinky. I most certainly would not feel that my hands were more ready to touch food because of the application of hand sanitizer.

But here’s the thing that gets me most about hand sanitizer: the public has bought into it. Do you know how many bottles of hand sanitizer are sitting atop desks on my floor at work alone? Far too many.

And here is why the public has bought into it: because they are afraid. And the mass-marketing machine that is the modern commercial world stokes that fear, “If you don’t use this hand sanitizer you might get sick and DIE,” “If you don’t buy this burglar alarm all of your children will be raped and DIE,” “If you don’t get these safety features on your car it will explode and DIE.”

When did we all get so scared? At what point did life become so valuable that we’ve stopped actually LIVING it for fear of “it” being over.

I, for one, choose to live in JOY rather than fear. All you gun nuts may call me naïve, that some lunatic is just waiting with baited breath in the Target parking lot ready to slaughter me, and I’d better have my trusty Colt at the ready, but I just do not care about the lunatic that much. That is on the same level as building an bomb shelter beneath my basement for fear of that too. The chances are just too slim for me to worry about. Or rather, I choose to have a quality of life and outlook that those things are not worth worrying over, adding another gray hair to my head.

Here is the way I deal with fear of dying: I live my life to the fullest every day. I try and appreciate the gift that each day is. I fail at this frequently, will bitch and complain and moan, but I really try to live happily and joyously. Look, (Barack’s favorite word) We are only here once, and we do not know how long we get. Yes, that lunatic may shoot me this afternoon in the Target parking lot, so I’d damn well better enjoy my last day here. More likely, I will live for many more years, 10, 30, or 40, get Cancer or Alzheimer’s, and die... and I am okay with any of those scenarios, because them's the breaks.

That is how life, for the most part, goes and I plan on enjoying every second of it to the fullest, not live in fear of something that I have little or no control over. I plan on Laughing Daily with my family and friends, Loving Ryan and everyone else in my life, and enjoying the precious time I have here. Because I KNOW that we do not get a second chance and my BIGGEST FEAR is looking back one day and realizing I did not live my best life, allowed fear to prevent me from enjoying this ride of existence.

Wow, look at me being all deep and shit on a Monday morning.