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By Andrew Crosthwaite
Life is beautiful. Look up from this magazine and you will undoubtedly see a world full of extraordinary wonder. The only question that remains is do you perceive it as such? Or do you see a world of disappointment, hostility and vulgarity? Is it a place to be celebrated, or to be escaped from?
We often close ourselves off from the world, preferring the shelter of our safe little corner. Our corner is small, not by chance, but because we have made it so. As people, we are afraid of the unknown and it is all too easy to give into this fear and retreat when we meet something unfamiliar. The more we allow ourselves to act this way, shying away from new things, the more afraid we become and the smaller our corner becomes.
Instead of backing away like this, many of us try to hide our fear. Not wanting others to see it, and to deny it ourselves, we mask it with cynicism, skepticism, snide remarks, and hostility; anything to belittle that which scares us. It is fear that leads us to turn our noses up and to decide that a person is no good because of how they dress or where they live. It is also fear that makes us size others up, label them, and put them in a box. People are less scary that way. Their mystery is removed--stripped down to a personality sound bite. Then there are those people who constantly lose their temper, ranting and raving at anyone in their way. Their actions also originate in fear. They are terrified of the idea that someone might get one over on them, and so they lose themselves in anger to prevent it.
We all use various means and strategies to make ourselves feel superior to those around us. Inside these mental designs we don't live so much in fear, but they come at a cost. Distance is the price we pay. By sizing up and labeling people we hold them at a safe distance. We do the same with sarcasm and cynicism, with anger and threats - we force others to stay away from us. We are safe, but unfortunately if someone is far enough away that they cannot hurt us, they are also too far away for us to see their merits.
Whether we are running away from our fear or attempting to defeat it, our motivation is the same. We are trying to protect ourselves. To fully appreciate the world around us, and especially its people, we have to do something different. We must accept our fear. We must accept that we will get hurt, be embarrassed or look foolish. In so doing we free ourselves to be open--to leave our safe corner, drop our guard and interact with people--with life itself. We must seek to understand rather than to cut down, to look past the unusual and the unnerving. Do this and the full gloriousness of life will open itself up to us.
Look up from this magazine. The world is beautiful and so is everyone and everything else around you.
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