Incessantly Written Down: Fear

Please write it down. Do not be fearful. Do not be afraid of what others think of your words. Do not be afraid of poor spelling. Do not be afraid of punctuation. Do not be afraid of lack of flow of thought. Do not be afraid of republicans, democrats or tea-baggers. Do not be afraid of the thoughts of others. Do not be afraid of your own thoughts. Do not be afraid of your own words. Do not be afraid of Arabs, Boatswains or Czechs. They have writers too who grapple with the same fears as you do. Do not be afraid of high unemployment, rising food costs or inflation. Do not be afraid of your fluctuation in weight. Do not be afraid of loss of sleep. Do not be afraid of getting too much sleep. Do not be afraid of CFCs, BPA, STDs. Do not be afraid of comets hitting the Earth. Do not be afraid of what God thinks. Do not be afraid of ignoring what your parents think you should do. Do not be afraid of time. The days are long and the years are short, deal with it. Do not be afraid of wasting time. Do not be afraid of spending time alone. Do not be afraid of giving too much. Do not be afraid of giving too little. Do not be afraid of life being the way that it is. Do not be afraid of things that don't really matter. There are too many of those things to list here, and it is a waste of time anyway.
Have no fear and confidently go out into the day and write it all down. Write it in your personal journal, write in your notebook, use a typewriter, a computer, a hi-tech gadget. Write sentence fragments. Write poetry, fiction, reflection, essay. Write a letter to someone you really love but don't see often enough. Write a letter to someone you really love and see all the time. Write a Haiku. Write down each and every thought you've ever had. Just do it all without fear. Do not be afraid of the opportunity cost. Know that you have the right to express yourself and you can write it down. Know that there is always an opportunity cost. We say free speech, but there is a price to everything we say, everything we write. Do not be afraid of the outcome.
Fear.
Fear is what will kill a writer. A fearful writer self-censors, self-edits and self-doubts. A fearful writer may never put a pen to a page. A fearful writer apologizes.
Lose the fear and write it down. If today you lose the fight, make a good effort and tomorrow the fight gets easier. Make no apologies. Have no fear of this process. And for the last time, write it down.