Fear. Everything we want is on the other side of fear. 881Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2lTqNWhbWJ
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. 881Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXkjr6IiRIs
--Ayame
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee881Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ101C6Z6vxi
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so;881Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjz214w8dZF
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow881Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWPRnuHwgX6
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.881Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0VZODeVvKT
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,881Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCg9qTdqBpW
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,881Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy4cZpqka85
And soonest our best men with thee do go,881Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxOjH5Q0kyU
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.881Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ94UNiyGTCQ
Thou’art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,881Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYHj1AnxzCd
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,881Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdwsbizfDPU
And poppy’or charms can make us sleep as well881Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBzWIchFvOI
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?881Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEEzMTuRrM0
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,881Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgp4h2IfuhX
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. -- John Donne, Holy Sonnet 10
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