Plunging stock prices stir colorful language and graphic fears. Stock owners who rode the Dow through one ceiling after another saw their portfolios drop 10 percent in two days recently and wonder now when the slide will stop.
Millions discover their personal wealth is less tangible than they thought.
In the absence of buyers, common stocks look more like paper and less like a golden future. But the crisis at hand goes beyond money. It is spiritual and it has to do with fragility. Despite our best efforts to control reality, life remains a fragile enterprise. How we handle that fragility will shape our futures more than stock values will.