I am happy to live among people with similar values. It would be challenging, and is, to mix with people of differing values. But what if I fail to convince the others I’m right? Failed to convert a Mary Magdalene to be a Theresa of Avila? I don’t care for the prospect of defeat.
Nobody does. But life has risk, and I’ve lived with risk before. There were the U-boats in the Atlantic crossing in 1942, though I was not fully aware (I was 8 years old), and there was always the prospect of being considered a foreigner.
So we live with our innermost attitudes, and deal with the prospects of providence (or fate). Whatever the good Lord sends.
Civilization 