Fear isn't usually very useful: (Unless it is used to step out of the way of an oncoming bus or truck with you in it's path)

 This is one of the main things I have learned about fear in my life.

It mostly isn't very useful at all.

Yes. It's true if you are standing on the edge of a cliff it's good to have fear so you don't just jump off the cliff.

I think many people secretly want to walk to the edge of a cliff and just jump off.

But, then it depends how high this cliff is and how deep the water is and how far down are the rocks when you hit the water and how high a cliff are we actually talking about.

I have jumped a long way off rock outcroppings into a lake, for example. And sometimes I regretted it.

For example, one of my daughter's boyfriends rode with friends and I to. a place called cliff lake near Mt. Shasta and Mount Eddy. It was a 4 wheel drive road so it likely was one of the most radical 4 wheel drive roads I have ever driven my Tundra on where boulders crossing dry streams were about 1 1/2 feet to 2 feet in diameter. But, the good thing is that in low range I could go over something like this at about 1/2 mile and hour or less so I didn't destroy my undercarriage while people were outside watching so no damage was done under my vehicle.

Anyway, my daughter's old boyfriend jumped off a cliff into the water and when he hit he hit the water so hard with his arms out to the side that he had serious welts on his underarms and he suffered with these welts for months afterwards and I only found out about this 6 months later from my daughter. So, Yes, it matters how high you jump from into the water even if you survive it.

The point is: "Fear is not useful most of the time." Most times just "Look before you leap" so you survive stuff in your life is a better way to look at it.

Here's one from my life which is strange to recount:

I had been cleared by Medicare finally to get a pacemaker for my heart. I was in the waiting room for my operation and it was June 2020 and covid was in full swing with no vaccinations available. So, I was scared just to be in the hospital for any reason. Then a Male nurse came in and talked to me and joked with me and psychologically prepared me for this operation. He seemed really good at doing this by the way. Then they gave me what is called "Joy Juice" which is sort of like something that makes you feel like you just died and went to heaven. So, sort of like an amazing feeling of total enlightenment.

So, then after giving me Joy juice intravenously they then shoved oxygen tubes up my nose and covered my head with a blanket. Normally, I'm sort of claustrophobic from having whooping cough as a child and almost dying from that at 2. But, for some reason this completely enlightened state of "Joy Juice" agreed with me and I was happy in a way I might never have been before.

So, while they were digging into my upper left chest area and cutting a pocket for my pacemaker I was all blissed out on "Joy juice" so they could still talk to me. The doctor said I was the best patient he had ever had. From my point of view "Joy juice" induced Satori or enlightenment completely agreed with me.

So, I felt no pain at all until about 6 to 12 hours later in my hospital room. So, before the nurse came to see me I was scared out of my mind mostly because of Covid worries of being in the hospital without any vaccinations available yet and being over 70 at the time (likely 72 then).

So, once again, fear isn't always useful to your survival. If I had been too scared to go into the hospital to get a pacemaker put in likely I would be dead now anyway.

That's pretty real there in itself. Isn't it?

I had been afraid of becoming a robot with a pacemaker. However, that isn't the experience at all. What it is more like is going back about 10 or 20 years in time and having the health I did then. This is what it is actually like in real life.

Also, the way had been paved by me by my step father-in law who lived to 98 years old with a pacemaker he got in his 70s or 80s. And also been paved ahead by my wife's mother who is still alive and mentally clear at 91 still who got a pacemaker in her late 70s and who recently had her 10 year battery in her pacemaker replaced. That's right! The Batteries in your pacemaker now last 10 years!

So, when you have outstanding examples like this it can get your hopes up for a long life, Can't it?