Be Careful What You Wish For — 1996
Fear makes come true that which one is afraid of.
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
I came across the line above from a favorite book, Man’s Search For Meaning, from Viktor Frankl. It made me stop and think for a bit.
I have long believed that if we can give name to our desires, our psyche sets it as a goal and does all that it can, most often in ways of which we are not aware, to make those desires come to be. It gives you in situations that make the desire possible, makes you begin to believe in the possibility and then behave and think as though it were inevitable.
Of course, there has always been a caveat to this. Kurt Vonnegut put it plainly in the introduction to his novel, Mother Night:
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
We can never fully anticipate what may come from our quest to make our desires a reality. There are always unintended consequences, both good and bad.
But Frankl made me think about how the same concept applies to not just our desires but our fears as well. Too strong a fear in us becomes much like a strong desire, with our psyche unconsciously pushing us toward that which we desire/fear. And whatever side of that desire/fear coin turns up for us, we often find ourselves at the mercy of unintended consequences.
Before you slam me for spouting psychobabble BS, let me note that I am just thinking aloud here at 5:30 AM. Later today or tomorrow, I may read this and wonder what the hell I was thinking. But I think it might be possible that by fearing too much, by trying to completely avoid those things we dread, we do create an environment in which they might come to be. Maybe that’s the results of physics, where every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
I don’t know but now that it’s a little after 6, it sounds good enough to believe.
That’s all I go this morning. Think what you will.
But be careful, you never know what might come from it…
Here’s song from Bonnie Raitt from just a few years back that is kind on subject. This is Unintended Consquence of Love.
Redtree Times 