“I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unnerving ease. It begins in your mind, always ... so you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.” Yann Martel -- Life of Pi

As the school year comes to a close, I am reading essays and reflections my students have written over various books they have chosen to read recently. Several students had read Life of Pi by Yann Martel. One of my students chose this quote as the starting point for his reflection. I had forgotten about it, but I remember when I first read the novel, this passge really struck me.

My therapist always seemed to come back to the basic concept of fear as the root of pretty much every issue and symptom I dealt with: insecurity, lack of confidence, depression, negative self-talk, suicidality, difficulties with communication, social isolation, stagnation, anxiety, dissociation . . . I could go on and on. He always came back to the question, "What is my fear here?" I hated that question because, ironically, I was afraid of it. To explore those dark corners in my mind took more courage than I felt like I could muster. I wanted to run from the darkness, not plunge into it.

But my therapist took my hand (both literally and mostly figuratively) and walked with me into those dark corners to confront my fears -- my greatest opponents -- so that I could reach a place where those dark places weren't so scary anymore.

For me, I think my therapist was right. At the root of everything were my fears, and by confronting my fears, I was able to defeat the old ones and learn how to step up courageously and look the new ones in the face more immediately so fear doesn't have that same power to defeat me as it once did.

So thank you, Cooper, for that little reminder. My students are great teachers of the art of living. They always keep things fresh and keep my eyes wide open.