After a strenuous day of work, I just love to “air” my brain a little. For this purpose, I like to pick up a magazine which is not too intellectually demanding and read the latest gossip about pregnant Swedish princesses or Queen Elizabeth’s latest hat styles.

Recently, when I was thumbing through the magazine VIEW, an article about the terrorist attack in Paris caught my eye. Sentences like “The world reacts differently to the terrorist attacks in Paris than the terrorists had expected” prompted me to read on. “People all around the world are united by their deep sympathy; also many Muslims grieve with Paris. From Paris to Rio de Janeiro, the landmarks are lighted up in the blue-white-red colours of the tricolour. … A very formidable answer to the terror is given by Frenchman Antoine Leiris. He, whose wife died at the concert at the Bataclan, posted an obituary for the mother of his little son, the love of his life, on Facebook, and in it he tells the assassins, ‘You want me to be afraid. Forget it.’”

One thing is very clear: We must not naively underestimate the major upheavals in our society along with their unforeseeable consequences, but that is exactly why fear is a bad counsellor. Again and again, we should get out of the hamster wheel of our fears and direct our thoughts and our whole energy towards a positive and peaceful realignment of our world!