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Size: 
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"One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do."-Henry Ford
Not living your dreams because you're living your fears?
When you were a child, did you believe in ghosts? Were you frightened by 'strange' sounds in the night? If so, the fear you experienced was real. So were the physical effects: a dry mouth, a racing heart, and perspiration. Yet, your fear owed its existence to something unreal. Your fear, like the ghost you were frightened of, was nothing more than a phantom. It was nothing more than an illusion. It had no substance; it was nothing more than a feeling. The dreadful thing you feared existed only in your imagination. You can be excused for acting like a child when you were a child.
But how can we excuse adults who abandon their quests, abdicate their reason, and destroy their happiness by being mired in fear, anxiety, and worry? Take my close friend Al, for example. When he was caching and realized the cache was near or on machinery, such as tanks, cannons, railroad equipment, steam tractors or assorted antique machines, his fears robbed him of his usual enthusiasm, resulted in some drive-bys, made him irritable, and sapped his energy, not to mention cold sweats, attacks of Tourettes, and palpitations.
So to help him out, I placed this cache for him to spend time with, facing down his fears and learning to enjoy the feel of the many nooks and crannies of the cold steel of obsolete equipment. He can go from looking down the barrel of the gun of his fears to actually looking down the barrel of a gun.
Like despair, defeat, anxiety, worry, self-pity, and hopelessness, fear is a habit. If we have the power to imagine all kinds of terrible things that will befall us, we also have the power to imagine overcoming every difficulty we face. Why not change the negative habit of fear into the positive habits of hope, confidence, and exuberance? Besides, fear can be beautiful. How could you experience the exhilaration of a 'dnf-defying' geocache unless you first experienced fear? The more we fear a particular task or situation, the greater the triumph in overcoming it. So, in truth, fear is nothing to fear. It is just a promise of great personal achievement for those who overcome it.
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