"What are you afraid of?" the man asked his heart. The heart didn't reply.
"There is no one out there that will hurt you, I'll protect you. I have grown strong, I'm a warrior now, you have nothing to fear." Still the heart did not reply.
"Tell me, heart. Was it our father? Was it our brothers? Was it one of our lovers? None of that matters now, I am a grown man, no one can do anything to us." The heart remained quiet...closed.
The man grew frustrated. "Heart, you are a coward. Maybe you are defective. Maybe I just don't have a heart that works properly. No wonder I can't feel love." The heart closed even tighter.
For months the man walked around, falling ever deeper into despair about his defective heart. Then one day the man grew very quiet. Quiet enough that he thought he could almost hear a whisper coming from his heart. He asked with all the compassion he was capable of, "Heart, what are you afraid of?"
The heart whispered back, "You. I'm afraid of you."
The man cried. He had protected his heart from everyone but the one person that could hurt it the most-- the tyrant inside.
