We Are Not Afraid

We Are Not Afraid

"If you want to stop being afraid, or if you want to avoid the habits of fear and dread, this book can help by teaching you a philosophy of life that will fill your heart and soul with a sense of well-being and confidence (Hickam xii)." The title of this book is We Are Not Afraid. It was written by a man from a small West Virginia town named Homer Hickam. In this book, Homer explains how most people in the world have become constantly afraid and some don't even realize it. He gives examples from his life as to how he has overcome fear along with many other people in his life. The book is separated in to four attitudes of his hometown, Coalwood: we are proud of who we are, we stand up for what we believe, we keep our families together, and we trust in God but rely on ourselves. In these sections he shares many great thoughts, advice, and experiences that have made him stronger, smarter, and not fearful.

What seemed to be an inhospitable place at one time later came to be known as Coalwood. This was the town where Homer Hickam grew up and he seems to trace all of his success and accomplishments back to this one place. He points out the importance of knowing where you're from and who your "people" are. He tells stories and lessons that he heard from his parents, who had probably heard the stories from their parents, and so on. He has a huge appreciation for the support he received from his people and how they taught him life lessons even though they were hard on him at times. Homer says that it is "necessary to be confident of who you are and rooted to something of substance, something of substance, something larger than yourself (7)." He stresses the importance of this connection between family members which I agree with. Just think of all of the hardships and tragedies, yet joyous happy times our families went through for us to be here today. I'm lucky to have a family who believes that and I know I'll always be part of a bigger picture. He also shows us it's important to not just sit back and dream, but take action! How else would anything ever get done? We should all take that next step in our lives. Everyone should take their jobs seriously and do them well. While doing anything in life, we should never quit and give up. As we do these things we can't allow ourselves to become arrogant either.

You must believe in yourself and what you think is right. Hickam states that people of Coalwood believed that "the wrongness of somebody's opinion could be fixed, but a lack of backbone was a tougher problem (64)." He believed, as I do, that we should always stand our ground, but we have to fight fair. To make a point you don't have to be mean, but you must know your stuff. It's important for us to stand up for ourselves as well as others. We can even benefit ourselves when