Fear.files

There is a dark poetry to this. In the past, you burned a letter to let go. Today, you drag it to the Trash—but you have to empty the Trash. And many of us can't do it. We leave the files in "Recently Deleted" for 30 days, just in case we need to hurt ourselves with them again. So what do we do with fear.files ?

We have folders for our taxes. Cloud backups for our wedding photos. Playlists for our workout highs. fear.files

Reddit threads dedicated to "creepy voicemails." TikTok slideshows set to sad piano music, displaying screenshots of rejection emails. The "Is this a scam?" folders. There is a dark poetry to this

Buy a cheap, nondescript USB drive. Move all the fear.files onto it. Do not label the drive. Put it in a drawer. Tell yourself: These are not lost. They are just not in my pocket anymore. And many of us can't do it

But where do we put the panic attack at 2:00 AM? The voicemail from the hospital? The screenshot of a text message that ended a friendship?

But survival is not the same as living.