THE CABALA OF FEAR

A man from a celebrated family of professional daredevils has completed a tightrope walk across Niagara Falls in a televised stunt.

Once, in Lebanon during the Israeli invasion in the early eighties, I was in an remote outpost overlooking Syria, waiting for an officer to come and address the soldiers, but the light went out. Amid the faint red glow that filtered in beneath the tent, a man began to sing.

Life is a narrow bridge, but the main thing is not to be afraid – we sang that song for an hour, over and over again. It was one of those hard-to-forget experiences, because life is like a narrow bridge – perhaps the reason why people cheered the man with no fear.

The Cabala describes two types of fear: the lower fear is of punishment – to fall from a high place and die; the other fear is a high fear known as, awe. ABC, who sponsored the walk, insisted on a safety chain, reducing the lower fear, nonetheless, the inspired awe was awesome.

Life is a narrow bridge and there is much to fear in life; often that fear is so profound that we forget about the awe in life, but then there are those who take great risk, transversing a great chasm on a thin wire to remind us all, the main thing is not to be afraid.