The Challenge Poem by Jess Patterson

As an infant.
We are born with two fears-falling and drowning.
This is clinically proven.

As a teenager.
We steriotype fears into social aspects, what 'he' or 'she' thinks of me, will 'they' ask me out, or if that test came back with a scarlet letter.
This is proven through the media.

As an adult.
We know right from wrong. Yet are caught up in the ladder all the time. Afraid that we'll lose the apartment, if a pink slip is given, if the washing machine breaks on laundry day, if the neighborhood is relatively safe for children.
This is socially proven.

As a nation.
We fear the outside world and power. Will other nations best us, will the economy get any worse, will a terrorist be aboard our flight, will the next president lead us into despair or hope for a better future, will the next generation lead us into cancer and more deaths than ever, will the war ever end, will our families come home from war whole, will a new law pass that awards health care to all, will abortion be accepted.
This is historically proven.

As a human being.
We are born with two fears.
As a teenager.
We develop insignificant insecurities.
As an adult.
We fear of the inability to control our own lives.
As a nation.
We fear security.
With only two fears in our brains. They branch and break to form millions of fears.
Millions of different traits.
Millions of ways to be right.

or wrong.
Humans have the ability to change and adapt. Inventions and breakthroughs prove this.
Change can be good.
Or terrible.
Changing into a world where sex is paid for, killings are daily life, and poverty is accepted.
If humans have the ability to change.
To accept.
To learn.
To recreate.
To destroy.
The only constant in every single human beings mind.
Is that prosperity is an option.
Death is a command.
To outlive lies, struggles, cheating, killing, burglary...
and to break away with nothing but hope?
This is the challenge.
The meaning.
To turn the two fears.
Given at birth.
To be the only two fears.
That the world should only know.