Fear

Fear can be rational or irrational.  It can make sense or not.  Any number of causes can be attributed to it.  It can be something rational, it can come from unexpected chest pain, where the source is not understood and it is known to be a possible cause for concern.  Or, on the other hand, it can be irrational, like walking into an elevator and being afraid that the doors will never open again, where there is no reason to fear such a thing.

Irrational phobias carry with them a certain burden.  Because they make no sense, it is difficult to come to terms with them, to fix them, to do anything about them.  Sometimes they come and go, they appear or vanish seemingly without cause, without reason.  It may have been one bad experience, it may have been nothing at all. Nobody ever really knows.  Some realize this is something they will have to live with forever, others find themselves free of such things at some point.

The line between rational and irrational, however, is a fine thing.  The question is constantly present of where exactly it lies.  Is an ache in the hip reason to worry?  Or is it simply paranoia?  Is it rational or is it not?  Where does a fear go from being something that makes sense, like hitting a finger while cutting a carrot too quickly, to something absolutely nonsensical, like refusing to ever handle sharp objects.  One makes sense, the other seems insane.  How does one go from one thing to the other?

Everyone has fears.  There is logic in certain such things.  And there appears to be nonsense in others.  It may or may not make sense.  But that's how life it is.  It makes sense one minute, and none the next.  Or maybe none of it makes sense at all, ever, and it's just easier to believe that there is something reasonable about bits and pieces of it.  If nothing more though, nonsense explains irrational fear.  It doesn't help it to make sense, simply explains it.  Then again, how is sense possible in a world of nonsense?