Fear. Everything we want is on the other side of fear. 723Please respect copyright.PENANAgvMbOnHLp4
Simplistically speaking, all you have to do is get over your fears to do what you want. We all know it’s not that simple, though.
Fear is a complex emotion. What we feel is a wall between us and whatever we are afraid of. That wall is the separation of stability and security, and the other side being unknowable and dreadful.
To overcome is to confront. We’d have to get over that “wall” and challenge the thing that scares us the most.
John Donne’s Death, Be Not Proud is a perfect example of this. The way I perceive it, John is conquering his fear by condescendingly taking hold of it only to smash it down into what he feels as inferior. Death is what he is humanizing in order to make it seem less frightening. He levels the playing field with Death so that it will be easier to face.
To John Donne, Death will die because in his world, Death does not exist. Donne believes that there is no “real” Death. He will go to Heaven where Death does not exist, therefore, making Death out to be nothing more than a temporary sleep.
This is what we should do with all of our fears. Donne has portrayed Death as a petty fellow who is arrogant in thinking he is immortal, that he is something to be feared. But, Donne expresses that Death is not to be afraid of, that he is only to be pitted because of what he truly is: a slave to fate.
In a way, we are slaves to our fears. We let the fear control us.
But, in reality, there is no fear. Fear is only what we make it. It’s only scary because we believe it to be.
Most of the time, though, once faced, fear is nothing but a trick of the mind to be overcame. 723Please respect copyright.PENANAHY5Eh27muB
--Ayame
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee723Please respect copyright.PENANAZuYlH384DT
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;723Please respect copyright.PENANAxbbD3T9LDH
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow723Please respect copyright.PENANA2BXbNiWxhA
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.723Please respect copyright.PENANA4OVP2LRWiP
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,723Please respect copyright.PENANA8aXD9A4X6T
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,723Please respect copyright.PENANAfKQxRGZwsb
And soonest our best men with thee do go,723Please respect copyright.PENANAQGyFRfXuvf
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.723Please respect copyright.PENANA4ICxtOO2Ey
Thou’art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,723Please respect copyright.PENANAEH4nHgpo8w
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,723Please respect copyright.PENANA0eNgwxE7KO
And poppy’or charms can make us sleep as well723Please respect copyright.PENANAhSVnQ8KRJI
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?723Please respect copyright.PENANAkJfImAPhio
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,723Please respect copyright.PENANACGi0lC3DG5
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. -- John Donne, Holy Sonnet 10
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