Awe

Recently on the Sainteros blog there was a post condemining the military's use of the word awe. I've always thought of awe as meaning something positive. A beautiful sunset, the rapids of the Niagara River, the way my wife looks at me with love in her eyes, a good poem--all those things fill me with awe. They leave me with an overwhelming feeling of wonder. They leave me with the feeling that the world is good. The military has hijacked awe and made it mean instead something destructive, something that leaves you witha profound fear. That's a meaning also of awe, but it's the second meaning. Most people, before this war, have more than likely equate awe with the positive connoation.