Fear.

LITANY AGAINST FEAR

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

- Frank Herbert, Dune

I have carried this in my wallet for decades. I am not a big fan of the Dune series but I found that this particular bit of writing spoke to me. My kids are too young to share this with yet, but one day I will show it to them and explain why it has meaning for me. Like all children, they will take what they want from the lesson or ignore it completely.

I am also fond of a quote that is something of a corollary to the Litany. Variations on it have been attributed to Ambrose Redmoon and Mark Twain and others, but Dan Rather distilled it's essence quite nicely:

Courage is being afraid but going on anyhow.
- Dan Rather
That is something I have always taught my kids and something I try to live. I try.

People who don't enjoy or don't "get" Science Fiction often miss the point. The best Science Fiction is not about spaceships and phasers. The best Science Fiction is about human truths even in the most alien worlds.

George Lucas knew that when he based Star Wars on Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey. Luke Skywalker is just another face of The Hero With A Thousand Faces - the myth common to most human cultures. It is a part of our shared humanity.

Despite the fans dogged dedication to the minutiae of Starfleet, Star Trek would be nothing without the story of loyalty, friendship and dedication of the main characters, the lessons learned on the many planets, and the Kobayashi Maru scenario, the no-win situation.

As a cancer patient, I and most of the cancer patients I have met, share the philosophy of James T. Kirk. We don't believe in the no-win scenario. It is a philosophy you might not develop on your own. So it is nice you can get things like that from Science Fiction.

It takes courage to defy the no-win scenario. Courage, in spite of the fear. I see that courage on the faces of my fellow patients sitting in infusion chairs at the Perelman Center. Others may not notice it behind the pain or the concentration or the practiced coolness we all affect. We can't fool the nurses and we can't fool each other. We know we all share the fear.

There is another lesson from Science Fiction which I have shared with my kids. It comes from Batman Begins of all places. They may not share my enthusiasm for Batman, but they have learned this lesson:

"Why do we fall?
So we can learn to pick ourselves up again."
- David Goyer & Christopher Nolan, Batman Begins