Waiting for the other shoe to drop? What if the shoes belongs to a centipede?

Constant tension, stress and ineffective efforts at crisis management seems to be our current state of affairs these days. If there is such a thing as a "national psyche," right now our collective personae is either fixed in a state of country-wide catatonia or in full paranoia. As all the old jokes and wise voices caution, paranoia doesn't mean someone or something isn't out to get you. That's why so many folks recommend never looking back...as certain as death and taxes, something nasty is gaining on you.

It is not unreasonable for people to want to feel safe and secure. Isn't that why we wear clothes and live in houses or apartments as opposed to swinging naked from the trees? But in a volatile world created and inhabited by humans, how can either safety or security be assured? It can't, and it never has been. Even the natural forces of this world - earth, air, fire and water - cannot be tamed and may turn feral at any time. Fortunately, Mother Nature has provided us with a few internal warning systems. We have our eyes to notice what shouldn't be there, our noses to sniff out smoke or other troubles, and our skin with those tiny hair follicles that stand up all over, or just on the back of our necks. And most important of all, we have that little hormone called adrenalin that readies us to kick ass or run like hell.

What Mother Nature never prepared us for, however, is the pitiless repetitiveness of 24/7 cable news, the tattletale nature of the Internet, and the hate and bigotry laced vitriol of talk radio. All three of these 'communications' anomalies, for differing reasons, keep our minds and hearts in a state of constant crisis. No wonder we're slow to react, slow to learn, slow to put two and two together to realize we're about to be screwed for the umpteenth time. So handy initially, adrenalin overload makes your stomach churn, your blood pressure and heart rate rise dangerously, and eventually sends you over the edge into complete collapse. When you're reasoning ability goes to sleep, any unscrupulous thug with a gleam in his eye, a smarmy smile and a good ol' boy manner, could convince you to pick up that Uzi, destroy your own children, and then put a bullet into your own brain that hasn't been functioning well to begin with.

When fear takes over, becoming a permanent resident inside you, your ability to separate reality and fantasy falters. You become irrational. You become so self protective physically that your discernment disappears and your brain may as well be mush. You regress to infancy, willingly allowing anything or anyone who appears to have 'authority' to dictate your thinking and your actions. You automatically believe what you're told, forgetting that hatred and bigotry are the children of fear. You simply lose that special aura that all humans have - your humanity, your recognition of those things we all have in common, your awe at the normal state we call life, your ability to function calmly and decently, your knowledge of your right to make your own decisions as they affect your existence and that of those you care about and love.

Fear is a centipede walking your backbone and hiding in your soul until, like the Phoenix, it rises to your throat and chokes the life out of you.