welcome May 3, 2004 Issue

Instead of fear, solutions

Jewel Simmons

I Remember Climbing Under my elementary-school desk for bomb drills. My third-grade teacher told us that by the time we grew up, we'd all be wearing gas masks. By the time I was in high school, I'd developed an almost irrational fear of a nuclear attack. For some of my friends, it was not about whether an attack would happen, but where and when. We didn't have a hopeful outlook, and talked about what each of us would do "when the bomb hit."

My mother said she didn't believe a nuclear war would destroy the world. I was incredulous! Her reason was interesting—"Because God wouldn't let it happen." Later I came to realize that what she was alluding to was something that, deep down, I believed was true. That God is supreme Mind, and that in this way He would govern humanity to find solutions. Thinking about that had a calming effect.

Several years later, with an infant in my arms, the old fear crept back in. In the event of a nuclear attack or a bomb, what would I do to protect this child from harm? Honestly—more than once I pictured myself wrapping my body around this child, and praying with all my might. Praying that God was Life. Praying that God loved all His children. That God's ability to protect was more powerful than any explosion, or chemical, or fallout.

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