Redtree Times

To a Higher Mount

I know now: I do not hope for anything. I do not fear anything, I have freed myself from both the mind and the heart, I have mounted much higher, I am free. This is what I want. I want nothing more. I have been seeking freedom.

–Nikos Kazantzakis, The Saviors of God, 1923

Can we ever be fully free of fear? 

 I don’t really know how to address that question. There seems to be so much fear in this country and around the world that it seems like a futile question at this point.

It’s a form of fear that has become so ingrained in the culture that it has become one of the prime market motivators. It has transformed into a manufactured entity that moves product. It creates ratings, builds political power and sells guns and gold and so much more.

I guess the question should not be whether we can be free of fear but rather: Can we continue to exist with so much fear? 

I’m thinking of this past week and the several young people who were simply in the wrong place being shot without confrontation by people filled with unfounded fears. I sometimes end my posts here kidding around about being an old codger waving my fist at kids, telling them to stay off my lawn. That doesn’t seem so funny at the moment because now Grandpa is scared and might be shooting to kill. 

How do we function as a society when the simple act of approaching someone to ask a question or ask for help becomes a potentially life-threatening act?

Bertrand Russell had it right: Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

We are experiencing that fear and cruelty right now. Can we get past it? Can we begin to aspire to such wisdom?

I don’t know.

I guess we can only focus on ourselves as individuals. Try to move to a point where we are above fear. That’s not to say we should not live with a degree of caution– there are dangerous things in this world– but we cannot continue to exist in our current state of paranoia and cruelty.

Okay, I’ve had my say.  It’s up to you now. You have to get to that loftier point on your own even though as the song goes, I want to take you higher. The original versions of that song from Sly Stone are unmatched and I have played them here before. But Tina Turner did many damn fine performances of this classic. Here’s a great television performance of it from the late 60’s.

No fear present in this. Just a whole lotta energy.

Now listen and leave. I am not shaking my fist but I do ask you to please stay off my lawn.