Last night my wife and I were fumbling through streaming services for something to watch. Usual problem. Something interesting, but not so interesting that it takes an emotional commitment to finish. Something long, but not so long that we are up all night. Something that allows us to not think, but not so stupid we fall asleep. I think you have all been there before!
We clicked on the older version of the movie, IT. We did not watch it for more then 10 minutes, one of us got too scared. However we got far enough for the first encounter with pennywise. Poor Georgie’s worst fear encapsulated into a clown with glowing eyes in the dark.
You may not realize, but Pennywise is just an embodiment of the Norwegian fairy tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. The troll under the bridge is none other then pennywise, our fear that prevents our progress.
What is IT that holds us back? What is the deep fear, the memory from childhood that prevents us from crossing the bridge? What is the dark malevolent concept that feeds and preys on our consciousness and keeps us from our potential? I don’t know what your IT is, but I can tell you that mine is a lot scarier then a clown, a boggart or whatever other manifestation. You see my IT is failure.
That is at the root of it all, that is the troll lurking under the bridge, the gremlin in the basement or the clown in the sewer. Failure, or at least my fear of IT is what holds me back. Thank you Mr. Stephen King for exposing my insecurities in such a brilliant manner.
I will not start, or jump fully in because ultimately I do not want to fail. To fail in my mind, or the prospect of IT, is paralyzing. A kin to the little childhood boy laying in his bed an peeing on himself because he cannot get up the nerve to cross the room, past THE CLOSET and go to the bathroom.
This is why you need constant reminders, constant focus, constant encouragement to take a step each day across the chasm of the unknown and toward the green grass on the other side.
In my case I needed The 365 Commitment.
Guy Reams (287)
365 Member
