Seventeen Years Ago . . .

I wrote the following passage many years ago. I wrote it in a story I've abandoned for way too long,but I felt it was appropriate for how I've been feeling in recent years. Bear with me for a moment, and I'll continue afterwards:

Fear is the greatest motivator there is in life.

Whether we embrace it or we defy it, fear is one of life's finest catalysts. Baruch Spinoza said fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear. They're interconnected as one can't exist without the other. FDR said that we had nothing to fear but fear itself. He recognized the power it had over us. If we succumb to our fears, then all hope is gone and you might as well call it a day. Societies fall because they do give into their fears, largely because they are snookered by fearmongers who got paid to do so. They spread fear of things that are unfamiliar to those easily manipulated or already having those thoughts:

"Oh, that person is bad because he's a different color than you are."

"We gotta move because we don't want... them in our neighborhood."

"We have to separate ourselves from them because they're mongrels who want to take our women."

"We have to put them under lock and key and control their every moves because they're a different religion than the rest of us and they look like the people who attacked us."

"We need to build a wall to keep . . . them out of our country."

"He's an illegitimate president because he worships God differently than we do, has a foreign name, has a foreign dad, and doesn't really look like the rest of us."

"She's an illegitimate president because you can't trust a woman around the nuclear button during that time of the month."

Fear makes stupid people say and think stupid things. It's just as corrosive as anything man can churn out. Of course, fear is a manmade construct, so, congratulations humanity! Another product we don't need.

On the other hand, fear is something we kind of need. Fear showcases the views of the idiotic class, that's true, putting them all under a microscope to show how tiny and infectious they really are, but fear makes us do things for three reasons: We embrace it, we confront it, or we want to defy it. When we embrace fear, like I said earlier, you cease to be. You're not human anymore. You're a sponge, soaking up what they want you to believe especially if it's something you want to believe anyway no matter how untrue it actually is. If you defy fears, you grow as a human being. You put aside the prejudices, ignorance, and hate associated with fear, and you come out a lot stronger, not to mention being a better person.

When you confront your fears, then you're doing a combination of the two. You acknowledge that the fear exists, and yes, you're a little scared to even approach it. But somewhere in the pit of your stomach, you take it on head first, unsure of what will happen. You shed a little anxiety, though it still remains, but you're not going to let it bring you down. When you confront your fears, you take a 50/50 chance on life. Be it soldiers on the battlefield, players on the gridiron, or a guy trying telling someone he had a crush on that he loved her for years all the while holding yourself back for any kind of impact in the end. At worst, she'll say no. At best, you have a girlfriend, you lucky guy, you. But if you don’t even try to confront your fears, you'll always be wondering what if.

That's depressing as hell.

Still with me? Cool. Seriously, from the bottom of my heart, if you're reading this, I truly thank you.

Seventeen years ago, I created something that interested me, a webpage dedicated to one of my favorite animation blocks, Cartoon Network's Toonami. Over that period of time, this site has been evolving into an action-animation news and information outlet, not to mention inspiring a generation to start talking about their favorites a lot more in a more critical vibe rather The site changed names a couple of times before becoming The X Bridge for the bulk of its life (10 years and counting), but the mission kind of remains the same.

Or at least it did.

I've abandoned The X Bridge for a better part of two years now, mostly for two reasons. One, I've been doing other things both online and off, some I'll share, others, I'll keep to myself for the moment. The other reason is that in this era where serious action-animation is all but gone in the West, I wondered if there actually was a place for an action-animation opinion magazine. I still wonder that. Just been busy reformatting every page into WordPress, and life gets in the way. I know I've been away from The X Bridge for way too long. I'm going to rectify that soon. I'm not throwing a date on when it'll be 100% again, but when it comes back, it'll be awesome. I'm ready to face that fear again. It's been far too long.

I hope you stick around and wait a little longer. I promise you'll have some fun and maybe learn a little something, or at least be enlightened. I'm feeling refreshed and renewed. I'm ready to restart the Revolution, and I want you to join me.

Again, from the bottom of my heart, thanks for sticking around The X Bridge all these years. Keep creating, and watch this space.