Welcome to the Commune podcast. This is Jeff Krasno. Many of you may receive my weekly Sunday

commusing article where I address a breadth of issues from the spiritual to the sociopolitical.

And on occasion, I will also record an audio version of these articles and release it as a bonus episode.

Of today's recitation is an excavation into the nature of fear.

But first, a brief note of awkward self-promotion.

I've recently released a compendium of all of my 2020 commusing articles.

The book is titled Communion,

2020, and the Middle Path, back to reason, morality, and each other. You can purchase one if you are so inclined at Onecommun.com slash communion. And if you aren't totally sick of me,

you can follow my regular rantings on the IG at Jeff Krasno.

So, without further impediment, here is this week's commusing titled, What Are You Afraid of?

I'm going to. What are you afraid of?

We dawdled down the congested corridor on our way to the cafeteria,

engaging in the typical prepubescent horseplay,

giving each other flat tires, flicking each other's ears, and the like,

Paul, Brian Kevin and I, like many 12-year-old boys, expressed our mutual affection through benign

acts of cruelty. The hallway connected the lower and upper campuses of Sacks Middle School

and was lined with lofty windows on the west side and tall narrow lockers on the east.

I don't recall what nefarious trickery I had employed to prompt such a response, but I suddenly

found myself being thrust across the

hall by my mates. One ripped the backpack off my shoulder, while the others corralled me toward the

wall of lockers, and then, in a blink of an eye, all went black and cold. I was trapped, sealed

tightly into a heretofore empty locker. It didn't take long for

...