C.S. Lewis said that cowardice is one sin that offers no pleasure, no compensation – unlike, for instance, gluttony. Being afraid and letting that fear control you is generally pretty horrid. This is possibly why making other people fearful or anxious has a certain nasty delight to it.I am recently back from a two-week visit to Egypt. The first week I spent, as I do each year, in the numinously beautiful South Sinai desert exploring silence with a wonderfully assorted group of like-minded campers, sleeping on the white sand under the red-gold water-carved cliffs and waking to watch the stars wheel silently across the black skies. The second week I crossed the (brilliantly blue) Red Sea to visit the cradle of monasticism and follow St Anthony’s legendary walk through the savage