A Mantra

"I must not fear.  Fear is the mind-killer.  Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.  I will face my fear.  I will permit it to pass over me and through me.  And when it has gone passed I will turn the inner eye to see its path.  Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.  Only I will remain."


This is a mantra from the classic science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert.  While I was not always a science fiction reader or enthusiast, I have over the course of my adult life come to appreciate much of it as there is an undeniable prophetic quality to much of it.  This appreciation had its origins when I was in college and took a course called Science Fiction as Intellectual History thinking it would be an easy elective in which I could put in minimal effort and coast through with an A grade.  Well, I was wrong getting a C grade in the course mainly for not reading many of the required books although the ones I did read had a far greater and lasting benefit than any grade I could have received.

I frequently use this mantra to help me control fears that I encounter in life and have found myself repeating at least the first 4 sentences in my mind at times whether at the top of a tree doing work as an arborist or bushwacking through bear country, even when dealing with anxieties arising from potential confrontational situations with other people.  It has worked for me and I hope it can work for others.

I am also using this as an opportunity to let anyone interested know that I will be starting a new blog that will solely be my thoughts and amateur philosophies.  On occasion I meet people who I have very fulfilling and intellectually or spiritually stimulating conversations with and  have had many people tell me that I made them think about subjects in ways they never had before so I'm going to toss some of them out there and see what happens.  I haven't started the new blog yet but will let people know when I have.  I think the title of the first post of this new blog will be The God Shaped Hole.

And finally, I will have another post about Kodiak, AK coming up here soon.  I recently spent 2 more weeks there working and had one stretch of beautiful sunny weather for 8 days!  I also got some answers to some questions about Kodiak that I had after my first trip there.