As America was preparing to give thanks around the family table, 10 young men with a chip on their shoulder turned Mumbai, India, upside down — destabilizing relations between two nuclear neighbors and making the free world recalibrate its limitless hope in the Obama Revolution.

In these days, under these conditions, I’ve heard subtle misgivings about our Thanksgiving duty. Grumbling, anxiety, and fear seem somewhat more fitting for the times in which we live.

“Thanks for nothing”. Or “Thanks, Almighty God, for what used to be, for what you did for the Pilgrims and for my immigrant grandparents too. But let’s talk straight; this New World of ours is going to pot. Plus, I’ve got no money.”

Not. So. Fast.

It was for the increase of that kind of existential misgivings — doubts about the real value of our life and the things we love most — that these 10 young men shed innocent blood and desecrated their own. Are we willing to say their mission was accomplished? Did you see the headline of Thursday’s Mumbai Daily? One four-letter word stood out: “FEAR,” printed in the biggest type you’ve ever seen. For 60 hours, fear gripped the city, all of India, and the world-wide-web.

Fear. What to do with fear? I must admit, until now, I never fully bought into the line President Bush often used in the days after Sept. 11 — that Americans should buck terror by getting on with our normal duties. The president’s words sounded paternalistic or simplistic, at best. I, for one, didn’t want to be the shielded child in Roberto Benigni’s “Life is Beautiful.” I wanted to know, and feel, and organize, and be human about a very human challenge. I figured any ongoing threats calls for ongoing action. Of course, most of us didn’t know what to do. Usama bin Laden was not a household name. Newsrooms still had not decided how to spell “Al Qaeda,” nor did it much matter to us. We assumed Islamist terrorists couldn’t be too much different than the bad guys in old Western films. You don’t get on with ordinary life when they are still hanging out in your town. Good living is for after the brawl, when the bar and bank are calm again.

But water, so much water, has passed under the bridge of Sept. 11. And we should be wiser for it. Despite the heroic and efficient action of great public servants, terror is still alive. It thrives. Ten people, a world away, can change our Thanksgiving Day. And surprisingly to some, the election of an African-American president with the middle name “Hussein” was not enough to make the fanatics hate us less. Yes, at the dawn of the Obama age, the Mumbai terrorists saw fit to pick out and slay Americans and Brits first, then everyone else next — as if there is some sense in a firing squad’s order. So will things be for the foreseeable future.

And if wisdom now shouts that terror is our new companion, if we listen closely, we will hear it whisper that fabricated fear must not be a distraction. President Bush’s words, “getting on with ordinary life” is sounding a bit better now. But still it’s not quite right. Why stop there? These turbulent times of global unrest and economic uncertainty may just be the perfect reminder to do ordinary things in an extraordinary way, to live every day, every human encounter, fully present and for what it is — a gift, freely given, undeserved, and always fleeting, even if life is allowed to run its natural course.

We can first say “no” to the distraction of fear and hatred. We can then go further and say “yes” to the invitation to love and be loved. We can replace existential misgivings about faith and family, justice and peace, and right and wrong with a new way of living. I’ll call it “Conscientious Being”— living the present moment with awareness of who we are and what we are called to be, according to God’s wonderful design.

Perhaps that sounds rather fluffy and high-minded. In practice, it’s neither of the two. It entails believing in the value of what you are doing today, if indeed what you are doing is good. It means trusting in the transforming power of grace-filled living. It means getting up again after every fall.

“Conscientious Being” is the spiritual antidote to the power of terror, and something for which to be grateful, last week, and every day.

God bless, Father Jonathan