FEAR IS RARELY RATIONAL
30 APRIL 2022
On page 30 of today’s issue, you’ll read about writer Jo Macfarlane’s fear of jewellery. Yes, you read that right. She is afraid of jewellery. I too was sceptical at first but having read her article, I can see where such an aversion could come from. Fear is such a weird concept – and one person’s idea of absolute terror can be another’s weekend adventure. You may have read my piece in the Irish Daily Mail recently about my day on an Irish Coastguard helicopter (if not, you can still see it on Extra.ie). It was absolutely thrilling and as soon as winchman Mick Treacy asked me if I wanted to sit by the helicopter door while he opened it a couple of hundred feet above the Comeragh Mountains, I couldn’t say yes quick enough. They then lowered me from the helicopter and winched me back up again – it was thrilling. I’ve also done loop-theloops in a two-seater plane, bunjee jumped more times than I can remember and recently swam with sharks in the Maldives. A sky dive wouldn’t knock a feather off me, I just haven’t had the chance to do one yet. When I send videos of my escapades to friends and family, there’s a split between those who’d love to do it, and those for whom it’s the stuff of nightmares. The majority are usually in the latter group. Yet for all my bravado, stick me in a field of cows and I’d be a whimpering wreck. They terrify me. And yes, I know how completely irrational my fear is. But that’s the thing about fear, being rational doesn’t come into it. In fact, I know a girl who has a fear of cotton wool – an actual fear, not just a dislike of the feel of it. There’s absolutely no way on earth to rationalise that but that doesn’t make it any easier for her. I think context comes into it too. I wouldn’t be the world’s biggest fan of insects – i’m not afraid of them, per se, but I don’t particularly like them either. I’m particularly averse to flying insects, and dragonflies freak me out – I think it’s the haphazardness of their flying perhaps, and those spindly legs. Shudder. Yet, when I stayed on a safari range in South Africa about 15 years ago, as we sat eating our dinner, some of the biggest flying insects you could possibly imagine were gathering around the patio lights. And while I didn’t want to get any closer to them, neither did they send me running for the hills. Yet if I saw these exact same insects in my apartment, I’d be tempted to burn the whole place down. I also used to be afraid of dogs as a child, a fear that weirdly disappeared after I was bitten by one. That’s the thing about fears and phobias – most of the time they make no sense. But that doesn’t make it any easier to overcome them. Thankfully mine don’t extend to jewellery – if they did, I reckon Swarovski would have to issue a profit warning.
Enjoy the issue.