Fearless

Dear Miru,

There lives an intuition in me that wants you to be fearless. I know that fear has a vital function, but it only works when you experience it against the background of fearlessness. When your mind is troubled by unprocessed phobias, the fear that might have saved you will become useless and irrational. When you can’t fathom your angst, you won’t be able to face the music of your vital fear. That is why I introduced you to some mildly scary stuff, such as the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.

You enjoyed the movie and held my hand during the scary scenes, such as when the dinosaurs were chasing the children in the kitchen. A few days later, you remembered that scene well and told me that the “dinosaur is coming”, “kids watch out”, “auto boom”, “dinosaur is inside”. The dinosaur on the screen had gotten into your head and I questioned the merit of exposing you to this stuff.

But you also experienced empathy with the children you saw on the screen, you understand their fear. Your father the dilettante neurologist only wanted to boost your mirror neurons a little bit, to shape you in the image of an all but forgotten god, as a larger than life demigod of solid empathy.

Daddy got carried away. But I’m not afraid of learning on the job and introducing to the next sensation: Home Alone. It’s never too early to wire up for spite or Schadenfreude.