The Four Stages of A Man's Life: Stage 01: Fear

When life befit as mundane with all reflections nixed, the facts and fictions separated by a hair's breadth, you scarcely remember were you learn what you learn. Following is based on an inspiration, a confusing but stimulating inspiration with my smoke as my best friend.

I came to this epiphany a few years back of the four stages or obstacles of a man's life. Some pass through all, some don't. Some climb through all, some get stuck in a loop. Some jump back and forth between stages. As we say too much of anything is good for nothing, even fun can be boring and I have been there. Having all that you want can be boring, and you feel like ruining it so you can start all over again, I have been there too. It is really amazing how the reality is so funny when you are not having fun.

The first stage of life is fear! We are born to the world with a host of fear. We fear the night, the darkness, loneliness. We fear the animals, insects, creepers and the unseen. As a baby we feared a lot, if we only remember! Even to some grownups fear still seems to be a mystery. However, with time we learn to face our fears and defy it.

I still remember as a boy I used to have a dream, the same dream over and over for several months. It was a dark night, no obstacles, no tree, no building, no objects, no sky, no ground and nobody else. Just me and a huge 40 feet dark hairy giant stumping after me. I ran until I got so tired and always wake up sweated with heavy breathing. I did endured this for hundreds of times. One day while running in my dream, I thought to myself, "How long will I run like this? Stop and fight, the worst is death and its over!" So I stopped, turned and looked up at the giant ogre. It was scary looking at those glowing giant red eyes. After staring for few seconds it vanished to thin air and I woke up. I don’t know how but that day marked the birth of a fearless little boy. No fear of death, animals, night, the unknown or even phantoms.

I remember when I used to fear centipedes, one day while in the toilet bowl a rather large centipede was heading my way. The toilet was clean white so it was really prominent on the floor. I looked at it and I knew of my fear but thought I will face it. I stayed motionless with my eyes fixed on it, while it came zigzagging toward me at a rapid speed. It touched my right toe stayed there for a couple of seconds and turned around and rested halfway near the wall. I said to myself "Was I afraid of that little creature?", smiled and finished my business killing it.

So I now believe every man have to face his fears or stay running away from it until it engulf them to madness. Once you defy your fears, you are faced with the next stage of life which is confusion and understanding...