Prologue

Pain and Fear. Inexorably linked at opposite poles of an eternal figure eight.

All of us, no matter what path our lives take, find pain and fear along the way.

They can define how we live our lives or they can challenge us to actually live.

The choice, as in all things, is ours.

People run from pain because they fear it. Believing that if they run far enough, dodge quickly enough, hide well enough, then pain will not touch their lives.

Those who define their life's path by the compass point of fear, who use fear as the driving force behind their life, never understand what it means to truly live.

And what is it that we fear, what incalculable force could make hiding away from life a better option than taking the rudder of own lives in our hands?

Pain of course.

None of us (well ... mostly none of us) like pain. It is another common denominator of the universe, that pain is something to be avoided at all costs.

Why?

Our physical response to pain, mired in the primordial ooze of our creation, is what stokes the fires of our fears.

Our desire for one more breath, one more sunrise, one more beat of our heart, provides us with a natural aversion to pain

Our ancestors needed the fear of pain to continue living. Our 'fight or flight' response is there for one reason, to keep us breathing.

When, over the next ridge, you may find a pride of saber tooth tigers that you will have to battle with your bare hands, or a bear sleeping in what just this morning was your home; having a healthy fear of the world around you helped to keep you alive, and kept the forces of evolution moving forward.

The 'modern' world holds few such dire threats.

And yet, more so today than ever, most people find fear to be a heavier burden than any of our forbearers ever dreamed.

We are, on the whole, a rational society. We logically understand that a panther is not going to spring forth from the bushes and devour us on our morning jog to Buckstars to get our double mocha crapuccino. But fear makes the journey with us just the same.

What will the boss think of my proposal?

Will Sally say yes if I ask her out for dinner?

How will I make the mortgage payment?

Did she really cum three times, or was she just being kind.

Jimmy must be using drugs.

I really can't afford this vacation.

On and on it goes. These are the building blocks of desperation, and the foundation for the walls we build around ourselves out of fear.

Does anything we fear today carry the weight it truly should? How many of us face our imminent death from an unknown quarter, even once in the long stretch of our lives, let alone on a daily basis.

There are those of us who do.

Those men and women who wake up each morning, and put themselves in harms way by choice, are those who stand between us and the true horrors that still lurk in our world. In doing so, they free us up to fear our next car payment, the supposed slight of a lover, the impression we will make at the company picnic.