[learn_press_profile]
Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island (one of my favourite books) and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, once said “Keep your fears to yourself and share your courage with others.” A noble idea for a man of action and adventure like Mr. Stevenson, but I doubt that this is good advice for someone who is seeking health and wholeness.
As we explore the concept of fear during Lent, we need to determine what is the best way of dealing with our fears. Is burying our fear with a false sense of bravado or even a forced display of courage advisable? Can we face our fears alone or is it better to do so with our fellow travelers in an open and honest way? Surely, none of us wants to be paralyzed by our fears. None of us wants to be seen as fearful by people we love and respect. We would much rather look successful and brave than weak and afraid. That is why, for those facing a battle or a threat, “never let them see your fear” is common advice. The idea is that if an “opponent” senses your fear, they will be able to use that for their own advantage.
This advice, much like the Stevenson quote, is one that equates courage with success and fear with failure. The problem is that too often the courage that we force ourselves to display is a mask that hides the real self and doesn’t deal with the issue at hand. Our personalities are shaped by our fears and our desires to keep those fears hidden from others. We are better off admitting our fears, allowing others to see them and know them, so that we can face them together. When our courage and bravado is a mask that hides who we are, we are not helping ourselves and not opening ourselves to the Spirit of God – which is where we can receive the healing power of true “courage, love and self-control”. We can’t deal with our fears by hiding our fears! Yet, far too often we are taught that we are better off not being afraid and so we become someone who is driven to minimize and hide our fears.
Robert Louis Stevenson was no exception to this rule. He was a sickly man who had struggled with his health from the time he was young and who died at a relatively young age. While Stevenson was growing up, his father would often sit by his bed and carry on elaborate, droll conversations with imaginary others to simply calm the night fears of his fever struck young son. Imagination became a way to stay alive for Stevenson and they would drive him toward more stories and even a sense of adventure. These adventures and stories became a way to show the world that he was not afraid of his sickness or the darkness that plagued him. The stories also put him at the center of attention which is what his health might have kept him form being. Yet, it is said that if he were not the center of attention, “he would do outrageous things to be restored to his rightful place.” (Biographer Frank McLynn)
So, while we were blessed by the adventures that this man made up for us in his writing, you can see the pain and darkness that remained present in his mind. “In his fiction, too, Stevenson ceaselessly explored the curious duality of existence, how darkness and light could reside in the same day, the same life, even the same person.” (Danny Heitman, Humanities Journal). Even the wonderful characters of Treasure Island are all corrupted by dangerous motivations and it is hard to see the difference between heroes and villains.
If we are to thrive in the midst of fear, it will not be by addressing it with a falsehood, but by facing it with our friends and our God. Courage is a wonderful thing that can keep us from being afraid, but true courage must come from knowing who we are and whose we are. It must come from a place of trusting God and opening ourselves to the care and support of the community around us. We face our fears by admitting our weaknesses and seeking the help that we need. Only then will people be able to see our courage rather than our fears. Masks don’t help us face our fears, they help us be something other than who we are.
