The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence - Gavin de Becker

This short book was terrifying and enlightening and in the end, somehow comforting. We are all gifted with an inherent ability to sense and react to real threats. Not the uneasy feeling we get in a little airline turbulence, but the visceral (gut) reaction we feel when we are in the presence of real danger. The Gift of Fear tells us to listen to that voice. 

Whether or not we listen to this feeling can be the difference between life and death. de Becker introduces many scenarios of people who have listened or not listened to this voice. And most of these scenarios are terrifying. Ask yourself, he says, what is the worst thing you can ever imagine one human could do to another? And then, he says, rest assured that that thing, that thing that you can only imagine has been done to someone somewhere in the world. And that thought sends chills through my body. Man's capacity for cruelty is only limited by the imagination. And most often the target of those limits are children. Which, is the most horrifying and unpardonable fact I have ever encountered.

So, I'm glad I read this book, because keeping myself and my children safe may (hopefully not) be necessary sometime. May I never let politeness, social norms, or societal expectations override my natural instincts to react to fear.

4/5 Stars.