It's been a year now. Since 3025 people abruptly and unexpectedly lost their lives, leaving behind families who will grieve forever.

3025. If we were told this was the number of people who lost their lives on the highways during a long holiday weekend, or something like that, we probably would barely think about it. We'd just turn the page of the newspaper, and go on. But as a nation we are stopping to mark the death of these 3025 or, at least, some of us are. So, there must be something different about this event of September 11th. And, of course, there is. It marked the death of many things - - besides the 3025 people. .

It was the death of our innocency as a nation.

It was the death of our love for flying.

It was the death of feeling our children were safe.

It was the death of hope, especially our hope for a better, brighter future.

It was the death of optimism, especially our optimism about things somehow “getting back to normal.”

You might say that an earthquake, of sorts, happened September 11th, 2001. It was as though there was a shift of huge tectonic plates beneath the surface of the world we thought we lived in On the surface, sometimes, things didn't look much different, afterward. But deep down they were and are changed forever. The shift of these plates opened up a rift in our comfortableness with life, and through that rift have come pouring out sights this year which would delight a born-again apocalyptic: fires, floods, famines, and corruption of mind-boggling degree, at the corporate level. Stocks worth a great deal yesterday, could be worthless tomorrow, if the executives were greedy and unprincipled. The ground feels very unsteady under investors' and employees' feet.

And then there are the terrorists - - ever present in our fantasies and our fears. Terrorists are simply defined. They are men who are very good at their jobs, which is to create terror. They are good at their jobs because they know how to cause people to fear common things which used to seem so harmless: airports, museums, public gathering places, airplanes, public transport, water, the mail, buildings, and the like.
 
Side by Side, but in Two Different Worlds
As I have surveyed the U.S. one year later, just like you, some words keep popping into my mind - - they are from an old love song I used to listen to, constantly as a teenager: "Two different worlds, we live in two different worlds" It seems to me that's ultimately the biggest change I see. Some of us feel this day as a solemn requiem for a world that once was; others feel this is just another day in the year. A year after the event we walk the streets, side by side, but living (in our head at least) in two different worlds.

Some people live in a world today where their grief is constant, over those lost on September 11th a year ago. It will never die. Other people live in a world where they grieved at the time but have moved on since, and rarely think or look back.

Some people live in a world where they cling to the habits, activities and values they had before the event, and nothing is changed. Other people live in a world where they have vastly rethought their lives, their meaning, their goals, their mission if you will.

Some people live in a world where they have found much deeper meaning and value in their faith, once discarded, and a deeper appreciation of the importance of God to them. Other people live in a world where their view of faith is utterly unchanged from what it was before September 11, 2001. Skeptics still, and to the end.

Some people live in a world where work is still everything, and the loss of their jobs during this past year has been devastating to their self-esteem, and their definition of who they are. Other people live in a world where they have put new value on their relationships with their loved ones, over any work they may do.

We are divided not by September 11th, but by what we have done with it, how we used it, since. Our decision - - not the terrorists'.
 
How To Use September 11th
Everything depends on how we're going to use September 11th in our tomorrows. If you want any suggestions, let me recommend a search for wisdom: a more proper valuing of people over things, a more proper valuing of love and compassion over greed, a more proper appreciation of the shortness of life, and the uncertainty of the time of our death.

Wisdom changes everything. That includes job-hunting. Job-hunting in the world before September 11th, used to begin with making lists, making phone calls, going out and beating the pavements. For some people, it still does. But if any wisdom can come from September 11th about this new world we now have to learn to live in, it is that job-hunting (now) begins with people.

Before hitting the pavements, first go to your best friend or partner, sit down beside them, hold their hands, tell them how much you love them, how much you regret the times you neglected them, ask what they are wrestling with these days, get them to talk, give them a sympathetic ear, learn to know them all over again. hug them at great length, prize them with your eyes. On September 11th, a year ago, 3025 people lost this privilege. You still have it. Treasure it.
 
A Final Word: Some Wisdom about Job-hunting in this New World
Whenever events like September 11th occur, they cause the equivalent of an earthquake in the job-market. Whole industries go on 'life-support' and are not fruitful places for the job-hunter to look. But at the same time, whole industries come off 'life support' and flourish. If, your industry has gone on life-support, do not beat yourself up by restricting your job-search to just finding a job in your old industry. It may not be there.

Instead, notice what other industries are flourishing. If you are out of work, you do well to pay huge attention to which stocks are flourishing, and which are languishing. That often is a clue as to who is hiring. You also do well to pay huge attention to the newspapers and the news on TV, radio, or the Internet, to notice which products or services are suddenly feeling a ground-swell of demand. They also offer clues as to who is likely hiring.

Go to the job-posting sites on the Internet, not just to look for particular jobs, but - - as a part of your research - - to notice which industries are now appearing on the job-boards again and again. All of this presumes you know a simple fact: that you have basic skills, like advising, budgeting, developing, illustrating, auditing, coordinating, diagnosing, fixing, lecturing, driving, negotiating, painting, planning, recruiting, selling, singing, typing, trouble-shooting, writing, etc., that are transferable from one industry to another. If this concept of transferable skills, is unfamiliar to you, then run not walk to get your hands on a copy of my book What Color Is Your Parachute? updated annually. (In the 2003 edition, just out or just about to be 'out,' this material is explained on pages 159 - 175; it's on the same pages in the current 2002 edition) Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest it. This concept is your key to transferring from one industry to another - - from the industry that downsized to an industry that is expanding.

Throughout your job-hunt in this new world pay constant attention to your emotions. In the wake of September 11th such emotions as fear, depression, insomnia, anxiety, grief, despair, listlessness, decreased energy, feelings of estrangement from one's loved ones, have multiplied to a worrisome level. If you do not have a health-care professional to assist you with such emotions, there are many websites that can help you with useful perspectives and helpful advice; just type one of those words - - e.g., "listlessness" - - into your favorite search engine (like the super-powered engines, http://www.google.com or http://www.ilor.com), and see what it turns up.

If you are a person of faith, now is the time to take those 'Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes' out of the mothballs, and put them on. God has comforted and helped people who are out of work for 4,000 years, at least. Find a church and pastor, rabbi, or Muslim cleric, or other, who knows that, and preaches radiant joy. There are such places. Keep looking until you find one.