In a recent article titled "Fear" in the New York Review of Books, Marilynne Robinson, author, most recently, of Lila, writes about an ennui which she believes strangles too many Americans, leaving them ready to embrace almost any idea so long as this idea helps alleviate one thing:  their fear.  Be it ideology, political posture, or cultural choice, too many people, in Robinson's view, sacrifice most of their common sense to distance themselves from fear, of all kinds.
     Few of us appreciate living in the shadow of omen or threat.  Yet we cannot protect ourselves from everything, nor, in a way, should we.  The adage is ancient, but the truth is still true:  in overcoming fear, we conquer ourselves.  Moreover, when we make decisions based on fear, we often make choices driven not by wisdom and reason but myopic self-interest.  We forget those we love, we forget the communities of which we are a part.
     Worst of all, however, we forget ourselves.  We forget that neither guns nor ideology will, in the big picture, really protect us.  We forget that we best protect ourselves when we stop thinking that we can, when we realize that the more we do to insulate ourselves from a fallen world, the more we reduce our humanness to mere passion and whim.
     And are we not more that these?
     Only if there is a personal God.  Otherwise, our fear, from the fear of heights to the fear of death, and more, becomes us.