Acting out of Fear

After the attack in France last week, one of my best friends encouraged me to avoid Nice later this year. My mother asked yet again, “You’re really still going to France?” Mercifully, my sister did not ask the same thing when I talked to her today. I know they’re speaking from concern for our welfare. Where does the acting out of fear stop, though? Folks moved out of NYC after 9/11 out of fear. Paris has had a drop in tourists since the attacks last year because of fear. Probably Disney World has had a fall in attendance after the Pulse night club massacre, not to mention the alligator attack, because of fear. I could walk out the front door of our condo and be hit by a meteor, but I’m still going grocery shopping this afternoon. I refuse to huddle in a bunker in Montana and eat canned pork and beans just to be “safe”. If you let fear control your life, those who profit from fear (be they terrorists or a certain political candidate) win. I’d rather act out of faith, hope, and love–with a dash of prudence thrown in to keep my mother calm.