Dangerous Games: Fear and Loathing in Las Piñas

Fear. It’s a useful and pesky little bugger. As a significant part of human instinct, fear has helped keep our species alive for thousands of years by steering us away from things that might have eaten us back in the stone age. The weird thing about the survival of a species is that we inevitably need to make some kind of progress and adapt to our surroundings to remain alive. Humans have done this and now reside at the top of the food chain.

Now that we find ourselves here, why are we still afraid of spiders?

Despite our current status as Lieges of Life on this planet, we still carry some of the instinctive fears in our genes that allowed us to get here. Wincing at a sudden gesture near our face for example. This is instinct telling us to protect our head and GTF out of the way. This particular fear might still serve us because regardless of which age we live in, things sometimes still fly through the air and we still need to protect our heads.

But sometimes an instinctive response no longer serves us. Like when someone emotionally pulls away from a loved one because they’re afraid of getting hurt, even when the damage was caused by someone else. Our brains are hard-wired to stay alive and avoid traumatic situations. Then there are people like Mike, who refuse to be afraid of something simply because it could kill them.

Apparently, if you only need to worry about anaphylaxis when you *ingest* pineapple, the rest of it becomes a spectacular game of “face your fear.” Suddenly, pineapple because the theme for all decore in the house. Art pieces are fashioned after the fruit. It is printed on clothing and other soft goods. There are pineapple lamps… You get the idea.

When Birthday Season rolled around, I did what any good theatre nerd does when placed into an absurd situation.

“Yes, and…”

This piece took about 24 hours over two days… Because I forgot about the learning curve that comes with doing something for the first time. So much so, that I had to continue painting it at the party.

And now for the Pièce de Résistence… The birthday dude, who had previously declared himself strictly Team Pie, losing his mind over getting to eat “pineapple.”

Here’s to facing our fears for another hundred years! Cheers!