Fear, Reason, and Love

There are three women who accompany me wherever I go.

Fear likes to remain hidden. She wears a gray cloak at all times, the hood raised to hide her rabbit-like eyes. She is tall, and spindly, and as thin as a reed growing in a playa. She twitches often, but she taps her long, spidery fingers together in a rhythm like that of a dragon’s heart .

Be scared, Fear whispers with her hand cupped and voice close to my ear. You should be scared. You have every right to be scared. Her sickly sweet voice tickles my spine like the feathery touch of a spider, her words clench at my heart, like a spider weaving its web around and around until breath no longer flows in and out of my lungs.            

            That tickle in your throat? That’s only the beginning.

            Who else have you infected unknowingly?

            They will mock you, scorn you, leave you stranded and alone.

            The Market will be closed. There will be no food.

            You will be alone in a big, lonely city, all by yourself.

            You will bring the disease home.

            Panic.

            This is serious.
            Be scared.

 I cannot see Fear’s visage, nor her lips curling into a sly, sinister smile. My own eyes are wrapped in darkness. My mind lost like a ship in a murky sea.

 Reason stands on my left. Reason wears a toga and sandals, with her hair shaved but for a top-knot, carrying a cloth sack of scrolls and parchment stained with the ink of important words. Reason looks at me and talks to me with a cool, impervious voice that cannot be perturbed. Reason says:

            Make sure to wash your hands with soap and water.

            The likely hood of you becoming ill yourself is small.

            The greatest concern is your passing it on to your gran-mama and your sister’s little son.

            Stay at home.

            Follow the Republics degrees.

            The Senators have strategies in place to handle such epidemics.

And then, there is Love, on my left, her arms gently wrapped around me, her kind smile and gentle eyes comforting me. Love speaks:

            Do not fear.

I am with you. I will guide you. I will comfort you.

            It was I who made the seas and the land,  who provides you with drink and shelter.

            It was I who painted the flowers, gave voice to the birds.

            It was I who blanketed the night sky, and lit the moon’s lamp.

            It was I who burns the star’s candle wax, and the meteor’s silver glow.

            It was I who tilled the Earth, who gently lifted the tree’s from their hiding places.

            It was I who counted and knows each hair on your head,

            Who feels your pain and cries with you,

            Who comforts and guides you.

            For I am with you.

            Do not fear.