Fear is an ugly emotion!

In fact, you could say that it’s perhaps the most insidious of all human emotions. It would surely win hands down in an old-fashioned repulsive emotions contest, if there ever was such a thing. You may even recall the famous quote from our revered President, FDR who said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” He made that comment in his inaugural address some 80 years ago, but we still don’t quite understand. Maybe it’s time to reconsider.

Or, if you want an everyday version of FDR’s admonition, listen to the guru of truth and enlightenment, Alfred E. Newman’s famous line, “What me worry?” Those words of wisdom have served as the tag line of Mad Magazine for some 60 years now. I remember seeing that phrase so many times when I was just a kid. My guess is that fear remains the single most motivating force behind all that we humans engage in. Let’s take a closer look.

Recently, we watched a video spoof that had us laughing out loud, called “The Honey Badger.” The original version was pretty “National Geographic” looking and sounding, but the spoof voice-over by Randall was definitely an entertaining edition. He got my attention. There’s nothing like a good old belly laugh, which often later reveals a serious message behind the humor—which, by the way is rarely very funny at all. In any case, the Honey Badger (the animal, not the video), has made the Guinness Book of World Records as the most fearless little animal in the world!

So I took a personal inventory of how I spend my days and what the motivation is behind my choices. It’s not as easy as you may think, because at least in my case, I’ve disguised the truth behind a cover that looks innocent enough. It takes some clever questioning to dig into the motivation behind the motivation behind the motivation . . . you get my point. If I go far enough down the motivational food chain, I eventually arrive at a suspiciously fearful morsel that instigated the whole thing.

After some reflection, I discovered that it was sometimes easier to look at what I don’t do. That equally long list had cover-up rationales as well, to make me feel better about them, but they were a little more transparent and easier to unravel. Sure enough, as I traced back through the chain, I found at the bottom of the heap—fear (just as I feared).

The great thing about the HB spoof, is that it presents a humorous depiction of what it looks like to live life without fear, albeit in the form of a rather ornery critter. The Honey Badger knows how to live fearlessly because, in the words of the narrator, “Honey Badger don’t care!” Sometimes, a ridiculously exaggerated image can make the point a lot better, and keep the point in our heads a lot longer. The spoof at least made us think about the consequences of over caring vs not caring at all.

If you want to watch the PG version, feel free. But if you decide to take a peek at the spoof video, be prepared because it contains some pretty raw language, violence and unprecedented funny stuff—but nothing much to be afraid of.