Fear of talking about fear

But we will not play the enemy's game and give up our humanity

IT IS NOT COMFORTABLE TO TALK about fear. I am even afraid of the word 'fear', fear of being frightened of its very existence, despite it's been an integral part of life as well as source of a critical function of survival along history. Fear, in this perception, is a synonym of life lived at its entirety.

At a certain moment, I started to ask myself if fear would possibly be the drive of resistance? And it's not far from reality, because the possibility of losing the freedom to have our nation, our language and our culture is the same as losing ourselves. Devoid of our humanity. It would be like we were nothing, thus, with nothing to lose.

Those who are nothing, don't have anything to fear because they simply don't have anything to lose. This war in Ukraine is about removing every component of national identity from 40 million of Ukrainians, in other words, erasing the most basic human features from this contingent of people.

But we chose to remain frightened instead of playing the enemy's game and release our humanity just to avoid fear. Because even frightened, the sense of being Ukrainian, having something very collective and very personal at the same time to fight for, gives us the ground support to keep enduring this war that seems to be endless.

When we Ukrainians meet with each other, we regenerate, we reenergize to have courage to keep going forward. These meetings can happen anywhere and anyhow, online or onsite, in destroyed cities or at a hospital filled with wounded soldiers only waiting to heal in order to go back to the front.

We are guided by the idea that the real meaning of life is under a collectivity. Alone, we are nothing. And even considering nothingness has the benefit of being fearless by design, it's much better a collective body of citizens affected with a dose of fear but also combined with courage and bravery that generates within the challenge.

It's important to keep resisting. It's necessary and it's urgent. May the fear that we feel be the pavement of our victory. A victory from real, honest and human citizens, who don't run away from themselves. From people who would choose to die right now if the other option is to live a life without humanity ♥.

This blog is a non-profit activity from a single individual in Ukraine, and the ability to carry out this work is dependent on the kind support of individual partners. If you would like to support this work, you can do so here. Besides Substack, you can also subscribe to a monthly membership here with as little as a cup of coffee. You can also download for free my book "The Divine Comedian" here, follow me on Twitter here, and check my original blog at Buymeacoffee here.