A seemingly harmless man with unkempt plaid shirt, baggy khaki pants, loafers sans socks and short silver hair. He could have just as easily been a Harvard or MIT professor or a person of the street. At first glance he could even have passed as someone's beloved grandfather.

"Are you afraid to die!" he asked me as his icy blue eyes stared and locked onto my body's biorhythms. He did not blink as his senses searched for my answer looking for any hiccup in my essence much like a lie detector needle recording the vibration of inconsistencies in one's replies. My eyes met his, which seemed like fire tunnels into an abyss.

"Death? No way, its the living part that gets me!" I retorted.

There was a cold silence that descended over us as we stood locked eyeball to eyeball. He was testing my resolve to see if I was serious in my reply, and I was. This 2 AM silence felt surreal while standing at 99 Mount Auburn Street in front of Mystic Rosa's neon sign saying, "Psychic Palm and Tarot Card Reader - Walk-ins Welcome." Time stood still and the normal Harvard Square swirl of intellectual merrymaking on this Saturday night, or should I say, Sunday morning, ceased as this man's spirit squared off with mine.

It had been the Jackie Chan movies that caught my attention in the first place. I stood there with my new friend, an alumnus who worked her way through school as a Boston taxi driver and promised to show me the best night spots for photos, if she could come along. A busy working mom living in Florida, she welcomed the opportunity to be driven around with nothing in particular to do and no place in particular to get to.

"Impromptu photography," I told her as we started out earlier that night. By the time we got to Mystic Rosa's, I was on a high from glowing shots of the Christian Science fountains, Beacon Hill monument, Charlestown cobblestone streets, gas lights and more.

Cambridge was our last stop. We were walking around enjoying the coolness of New England's summer air, when we rounded the corner and saw this comic store with multiple TV's in the bay window, each running a different karate kick 'em-up bad-guy-gets-his movie, ever so popular with those of us Grasshopper wannabees from years ago.

As the man continued to stare at me, I broke our silence, "Look, I'm not in a hurry to die but lets face it, we are all going to go. That's a given. I've had my brushes and have come to grips with my mortality. To a certain extent, I'm looking forward to returning to the better heavenly world, but the gig is living now. What are we going to leave behind. How are we going to improve the world. When we cross over, how are we going to greet our Creator. Please, the living thing is the biggie, death is something everybody gets to do regardless. So I say forget death, show me the courage to live and live with honor and style. Now that's something to be afraid of, of not living up to one's potential. Look at these movies. I've studied lots of martial arts, and no matter how good I got, there was always somebody better. Sure I learned how to fight and I'll fight to the death if that's what's called for, but its not about the other guy. Its about what's inside of me. Am I putting forth my best efforts. Am I sticking to my own focus. Do I stand for something. No, death is nothing compared to living."

With this the guy laughs heartily, nods his head, and then proceeds to tell me this ancient story with a Cheshire cat smile and a certain glimmer in his eyes:

One day a famous Samurai warrior shows up at a local tea house, and somehow the tea master offends him. So the Samurai says, "Tomorrow you will die. You come and meet me at this park at 11 AM and square off or I'll hunt you down and then kill all your relatives too. Be there." And with that he storms out of the tea house.

The poor tea master has never been schooled in martial arts of any kind and is very concerned about what to do. He asks for advice from a trusted friend who tells him, "You must go or else great ruin will happen to you and your seed. But you must do what you do best and play from your strengths, so before the battle offer him tea."

Now those of you who know, the tea ceremony in Asian countries is almost sacred. It is a deliberate art where everything has a purpose and requires balance with everything else.

Back to our story, the tea master shows up at the park at the appointed time and the Samurai says, "Prepare to die. You die today."

"Before we begin, since you suggested time and place, I would like to propose that you allow me the opportunity to choose also, and I would like to start first with a tea serving."

"Okay, very well. But then you die."

The tea master proceeds to go through his routine, the whole time the Samurai is looking at him suspiciously with agitated manners. The tea master offers the Samurai tea, but the warrior suspects poison, so the tea master drinks first. Few words are exchanged. During the entire time, the tea master is completely at peace and absorbed in the nowness of it all.

At the conclusion of the tea ceremony the warrior says, "Prepare to die now. Choose your weapon and pick it, for you die now."

The tea master picks up a sword and holds it with his right hand in vertical fashion so the point is upwards towards his head and parallel to his spine. The Samurai drops into a horse stance, left leg aggressively forward, right leg behind with even weighting, drawing his sword over his right shoulder with two hands cocked on the handle, ready to blow the death arc. He gazes at his opponent with mighty focus on what's to be done. Yet the tea master remains calm, just as calm as he had been during the tea ceremony.

They stand there. Neither moves. Neither motions.

Then the warrior with sword drawn, knowing he can strike the death blow looks at the eyes of the peaceful tea master and says, "Today is not a good day to die." He then drops his sword and goes home.

Angel of death, average dude, or mentor I know not, but the power of the story resonates deeply and I honor it.

Fear is something to respect. It helps us to be sharp. No fear is for fools, for they fail to honor the risks inherent in a pursuit.

I advocate honoring one's fears. They help us to understand our limitations and the realities of outcome. But even so, after understanding, we must move through them if we are to achieve glory in any creative effort.

After my Cambridge brush, I searched out some info about tea ceremonies. One piece shared a similar story about a Zen priest approached by a great warrior who says, "Don't you know that I am the baddest Samurai in the land and can kill any man with this blade." The Zen priest turns to him and says, "Don't you know I am a man who fully lives knowing he can die at the hands of a great Samurai warrior's blade at any time."

I think my father captured fear best when he said, "Certainly every ending is a new beginning, if we only knew the extent of what we were beginning, we'd have no fear and be tickled pink."

Another quote I heard which has merits: "If one were to truly know the fears that haunt one's enemy, one would never fear an enemy again."

So here's the chapter's summation, respect your fears and then move through them. Otherwise, you'll be a captive prisoner who fails to know one's own keys of creative freedom.

PS - The only difference between spelling sacred and scared is where one places the C - as in creative vision, see!   top