Every time I consider taking fewer photographs to post on Facebook, I receive kind compliments that cause me to continue. For my retirement years, I walk daily and snap photos of interesting things I see. I share several on Facebook daily. I finally think people must be getting tired of my photos. I have loved snapping photos since the days of receiving my Big Swinger camera for Christmas. The image coming from the camera is magical to me. The camera’s eye sees things that I miss with my human eyes. The camera’s eye sees with no fear or mental reservation. The camera often captures the soul. We Baby Boomers were taught to not stare at people. The photo is unflinching in its portrayal. Pictures reveal to us the hidden world.

We have some fear. It comes with the package. We wear Fear like a three-piece suit. We purchased it at a fine clothing store. It cost a month’s wages. When we are faced with environments that make us uncomfortable, we put on our three-piece suit of Fear. Certainly, it will protect us. When we are asked if we can do a job in our church, we check our watch hanging from a golden chain attached to our three-piece suit of fear and respond No, thank you.

Wrong is in front of us. They are making up public policy on the fly. We know most of what political leaders are saying is bullshit. We know their venom-filled rhetoric is harming vulnerable people. We are in our safe place. We have fear. Perhaps someone else will do it. Perhaps someone else does not have fear and thus will speak out against obvious lies.

I learned in my early days to overcome fear. I saw the best Chancellor of Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale fired without cause. She was fired for spite, as Jerry Seinfeld said when he attempted to return a sports coat and gave the reason of spite. I was threatened, and the people who reported to me in the housekeeping department were threatened, but I would not back down and invited the person exuding the threats to have the Board of Trustees and the Governor threaten me as well. I saw bullies make kids’ lives miserable in school. Fear is a formless vapor that, when blown upon, evaporates.

It is incredible to me that our elected leaders cannot muster the courage to vote against a bill that they know hurts the people who elected them to Congress. Is the money, the power, and the perks that good? I have held two elective offices: the president of the Civil Service Council at SIUC and Elder at First Presbyterian Church. The people that I represented were all I could think of.

Life cowers us. Fear rules our lives. We believe fear is our natural state of being. This irrational fear is why we are in our current condition. We are afraid of our neighbors. We fear the end of the world when in reality, our world is going to end in a few short years due to death. We fear offending some people when they do not know our name, or will forget it soon after our encounter with them. We worry about what people will think when they seldom, if ever, think of us.

We fearfully walk in the agenda of our minds. Many falsehoods we believe to be true. We follow an image that others have developed for us. Often, we search for who we are. We see a shadow on the wall where our shadow should be. It looks bold and courageous. It is a strong shadow full of joy. The shadow reveals who we really are without the three-piece suit of fear.