News & Media Overload: Living in fear is no way to live

News & Media Overload: Living in fear is no way to live

Read the comments on any news story involving a violent crime or follow any active news feed, and you will see comment after comment lamenting the state of the world and talking about how fearful we have to be of, well, pretty much everyone. If the comments at your local news site are anything to go by, you could be the victim of a home invasion at any moment. Your children are in danger of being snatched up 24 hours a day. That guy in your neighborhood taking a walk is probably a rapist. And so on. The problem with…

On creativity and fear

Creation is an act of defiance against fear. Whether writer, musician, artist, or other variation on the theme of Creative Person, all of us at one point or another struggle between our insatiable need to create and a nagging demon whispering to us, "You can't do it. You will never be great." So when we sit down and put words on the page or send musical notes to the ears of our listeners, we are rebelling against that fear. Where others are intimidated by failure, by the sometimes insurmountable challenge of turning their creative vision into reality, we fight on.…