The 30-Day Writing Challenge: Five Fears

Last week, I took a stab at one version of the 30-Day Writing Challenge that's been going around the Blogosphere with a post dedicated to a quote that I live by. Today, I decided to pick out another topic from the list of 30: Five Fears That You Have.

We live in a scary world, and there are plenty of things to be afraid of ... here are my big five:

1. Anything bad happening to my children or grandchildren. When you're a parent or a grandparent, there is probably nothing more terrible than the thought of your little ones being hurt. Of all the things that scare me, this is definitely the worst.

2. Alzheimer's Disease. My mother passed away in 2001 from complications of Alzheimer's, and the horror of watching her brilliant mind waste away is truly one of the most frightening things I've ever experienced. If something bad happening to the children or grandchildren is my greatest fear, the slow death of Alzheimer's is a close second.

3. The Internal Revenue Service. Nobody likes to pay taxes, but an agency of the government that has the power to impose huge fines for the smallest of mistakes, or to seize anything you own ... that's really scary.

4. The Republican Party. When a political party is dismissive of facts, logic, and compassion, driven by its most extreme elements, and willing to destroy the government to get its way, it ought to scare you as much as it scares me ... and I say that as a long-time Republican driven away by the crazies.

5. Religious Extremists. True Believers, high on self-righteousness and the belief that they, and only they, know the Real Truth and have the right and duty to impose it on the rest of us, are the last of my five fears. ISIS may be scary, but there are plenty of True Believers here at home who would impose their religious strictures and beliefs on the rest of us, too.

I'm a pretty upbeat person most of the time, but there are things that scare me. Now you know what the biggest of them are*.

Be afraid, but be afraid of the right things.

More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* I'm also afraid of other things, like roller coasters and open-carry gun nuts, but that's a post for another time.