The Thin Line Between Fear and Respect
As a teacher, a parent, and inspirational music composer, I am conscious of this subtle line of demarcation between the undesirable and the desired. It moves and waves from case to case, from situation to situation. It requires complete consciousness to keep it in control.
I want to be feared by no one – not even my worst enemy. If I am feared then I truly am an enemy. If I am respected then the enmity disappears and the relationship between constituents is in balance. Cross the line and welcome in the beginnings of war.
Cross the line from respect into fear and a whole plethora of negatives immediately begin and become immediately ensconced in the relationship. With children, with students, with lovers and mates, respect enables, perpetuates communication, balances differences and settles souls.
Fear garners immediate mistrust, total stoppage of any chance for communication, unhappiness and ultimately hatred. There is nothing positive about fear. It is the road to war.
The two concepts are opposites and yet there is a line of demarcation where we cross over from one to the other. In that crossing over from respect to fear, we who make the crossing take on and engender immediate hatred, immediate negativity and shut down any chance of healing until the line is re-crossed. Until then, hatred governs existence.
In order to re-cross back from fear to respect only one additive is needed: Love. Love is the spoiler of fear. The little game taught at the feet of Mom was always…
False
Evidence
Appearing
Real
Fear is always a minus, a negative, a failure, less than zero. It has no positive value. If you are feared, you are evil. You are expressing evil in some measure and that evil is instantly recognized by people who are centered in goodness. It cannot be hidden.
Engendering fear gets one nowhere. It is one of the world’s great misconceptions that to be feared makes one mighty.
The real truth is that to be respected makes one mighty. To be feared makes one weak and destroys the basis of relationship.
If I am feared, I am a failure as a parent, as a teacher, as a friend, as a mate. If the United States is feared by anyone around the world, it makes us no better than Hitler’s Germany.
Fear is just that clear cut.
If we are respected, we are loved.
For each of us, it’s a choice we get to make nearly every day. Which do we choose? Seems like no choice at all, but it can get a little tricky when it gets down to that thin line.
We must all stay alert to the crossing over of that line.
Let love govern.
For more inspirational music, thoughts and ideas from Peter Link,
please visit Watchfire Music.