Sometimes life is very frightening -- and I don't like being scared. I avoid driving down certain streets. I take my steel-handled flash light when I make a drop-off at night. I keep my car phone on. I wouldn't say that I'm paranoid, but I do give heed to the "word to the wise" which suggests that "there's little regard for other people or their personal property" anymore. You just never know when someone will flip out, like the gunman did when he killed six passengers on the Long Island Railroad, or carjack you at the Exit 22 McDonald's rest stop in I-95.

I don't like feeling that way! I confess that I get disgusted when the rights of the individual take precedence over the rights of the community. To be clear, I am intolerant of prejudice. At the same time, it's hard to get out of the way when the poison bombs of "isms" are so freely slung. The fallout splatters the innocent and guilty alike!

What can bind up our fractured society? Anymore, it's "all for one ... and all for one." Where do we find meaning in an age of violence and division, an age of self-centeredness?

By far, I get the most concerned when I begin to feel a sense of resignation that "you just can't do anything about it." I pine for the way it was in the "good old days" when I knew who I was and how things were "supposed to be." Yet to choose to stay in that time gone-by is to choose to give up on today. That's opting out. That's numbly sitting by in a trance and permitting another, more secular, more selfish agenda to dictate how we act and what we think. That's dying!

What's the source of meaning in life? What is it that lasts? What is it that endures? To what we can turn for lasting meaning?

Today so much seems to have been changed from what we used to know and find comfortable. It's hard to be clear about the sustaining "stuff" of life. We run at such a flat-out pace that all goes by in a blur, until we crash and scream out in agony, "stop the world, I want to get off!"

With the rapidity of change and the scarcity of time to process it, a call to get "back to the basics" is very appealing. What the "basics" are, however, poses an open question.

Have all our creations and diversions led us so far astray from the essence of human existence that our ordinary footing is as slippery as ice-coated steps? To what can we turn?

The "golden rule" is very specific. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." It's good to love others as we love ourselves. Scouting standards project solid virtues: reverence, kindness, courtesy, trustworthiness, helpfulness, honesty, and bravery, to name a few.

Jesus appeals to us to show mercy, seek rightness in relationships, make peace, be humble, be empathetic and sympathetic, and stand up for what we believe. We may choose to do all of this, and still be subjected to rudeness and face hostile or threatening challenges. Even so, stand up for decency; make yours a vital witness.

Take a stand against evil. Know what's right, and live accordingly. If we leave even a small space for evil to sneak back, it will roar in with a vengeance, with seven times the force, with infinitely greater impact, until we are overwhelmed ... and consumed. Must we fall prey to it? No!