Fears of Your Life (the book)

Fears of your life is written by a developmentally disabled man named Michael Bernard Loggins. His work is being presented on stage in a couple of weeks and I will be reviewing it, but the choreographer gave me a copy of his book, so I could have an idea of what the show is about.

Michael has listed all of his many fears, along with cartoons which depict many of them. I can relate to a lot of them (like "monsters under the bed," my big fear all the years I was growing up).

I get the feeling that Michael has experienced much fear reaction on the part of other people. Several of his "fears" relate to how people perceive him. Fears 101 to 104 read:

101. What people think of when they see me coming up the streeet? What the first thing they can think of once they see a stranger like me coming in the direction I goes in? Nothing but fear!

102. Why do people when they see me coming what do they tell their friends? let's cross the street. I don't want to get hurt.

103. we better cross the street this man is following us and he wants to bother us whatwe ought to do is turn and go another direction Fear.

104. what does fear itself can do to make you afraid of a stranger and what does that fear tells you about that man and what fear cause you to think something may happen to you in just 5 seconds or 1 minute? does fear warns people to move away from ;him or is it that it's a warning system tells you that man is ready for an attack and harm you or what kind of danger your life is in when you or guys and girls think to do is it lot threatening or just a kind of situation you may face soon?

This book made me stop and think more often than not. It is available through Creativity Explored, a workshop for developmentally disabled people in San Francisco. I encourage people to check out their amazing web site.