Sitting at my computer - chatting, using twitter, writing a blog post. Then suddenly it happens. A surge of fear. Heart thumping, pulse racing.
What are you afraid of?
I stop typing and sit back. Try to be calm. Think. What caused that? Why am I panicking? I don’t understand it.
What are you afraid of?
In my panic I stand up. Adrenaline strengthens my normally wobbly walking. I walk through the house. Remember that no one else is here. Then for no reason that I can think of I wonder where the cat is. She’s not on the bed, or the sofa. I stumble through the house, wobbly now, adrenaline or not. I don’t know what to do.
What are you afraid of?
I crash back into the living room. I find the cat sleeping on the floor next to the sofa. Relieved to find any living thing in the house, I fall down beside her. She glares at me.
What are you afraid of?
I put an arm around the cat, and my head on the floor. I close my eyes. My pulse is racing. Thumping. My head hurts. All the aching muscles that I had been resting after too much activity in the last few days are aching again. I reach for my phone, for twitter. Call out to anyone who is there. Friends are there. They are lovely, talking to me, helping me to calm down. The cat purrs a little, perhaps sensing my distress.
What are you afraid of?
Time passes. The floor is hard. The cat finishes purring and wanders off. I should move, but panic has left me exhausted. I have no energy.
What are you afraid of?
There is a fluffy polar bear behind me. I more to put my head on it. I lie there helpless.
What are you afraid of?
Then, at last, I hear a key in the door. Footsteps. A voice calls out.
Then help to sit on the sofa. Hugs. A cup of tea.
Feeling stupid, foolish.
What are you afraid of? I only wish that I knew.
What are you afraid of? Fear! This government have made it clear that nothing is out of bounds, that there’s nothing they will not do! They will not take advice, they will not be stopped! If you’re poor, sick or disabled you are fair game. I too am afraid of these morally corrupt robots, who wouldn’t be?
I think that we have been concentrating so long on all the bad things that this Government is doing to us that there is a real sense of dread around us all. It has been bottled up and subsumed by the campaigning work. Now these crucial votes have gone we are left with a lot of free floating fear that we had been burying under being busy. Now we are having to deal with the consequences of all the anger and fear we had been channelling into campaigning.