Never Have I Had the Urge: To Go back Into the water

Some fears don’t disappear just because time passes.

Sometimes they sit quietly in the background, waiting for a sound, a memory, a place, or even a movie to bring them rushing back.

For me, Jaws has always been one of those things.

Fifty years after that movie changed the way millions of people looked at the ocean, I found myself thinking about fear in a much bigger way.

Why do certain fears stay with us?

Why can we know something is unlikely, irrational, or exaggerated — and still feel it physically?

And at what point does being careful become avoiding something altogether?

In this episode of Never Have I Had the Urge, I go back to the water and revisit the fear that Jaws helped create for an entire generation.

But this episode isn’t really just about sharks.

It’s about memory.

It’s about imagination.

It’s about the way fear can grow when we feed it, and the strange power certain experiences have to stay with us long after the moment itself has passed.

Sometimes we outgrow our fears.

Sometimes we learn to live with them.

And sometimes the real challenge is simply deciding whether we’re willing to step back into the water at all.

So here’s the question:

What fear have you carried with you longer than you expected?

Listen to Never Have I Had the Urge: To Go Back in the Water wherever you get your podcasts.

— Victor J.