Thoughts About September 11, 2001

September 11, 2001 was obviously a day that most of the world will never forget.

I grew up in New Jersey and spent a lot of time in NYC.  My father worked there.  My brother still works there.  I’ve eaten with my family on top of the world trade center in the Windows of the World restaurant.

On September 11, 2001, however, I had already moved into our mountain house in Virginia.  When I heard what was happening in my beloved city, I was glued to the TV like almost everything else.

My initial horror turned into relief as I heard that the NYC fire department was at the scene.  I thought everything would be okay – after all, they’re the best in the world at what they do.

Then the unthinkable happened.  The first tower collapsed.  And then the second.

How can any human being witness what unfolded that day without something profound occurring within them?  

At least, that was my initial emotional response.

But then an email made me realize the status of our society.  I received the noted email 30 minutes after the 2nd tower collapsed, and it  shook me to my core.  I’ll read what it said:

“Do not let terrorism, which is designed to create fear and stop production, halt your life or work.  Stay focused and do not stop what you’re doing.  May God help us all and the decisions we must make.”

I remember thinking “I’m supposed to stay focused?  On What?  I’m not supposed to "stop production?"  I’m simply supposed to keep working and not let this bother me?  I’m not supposed to grieve, wonder, pray – I’m supposed to simply keep doing I’m doing?  What kinds of calloused people have we become? 

What level of event will it take to get us to stop and listen and learn?  

Please try to relate this to where you work, where you live, and even your families.  And please try to consider this:

Failure is the only phenomena of life capable of getting our attention when we’re too busy doing something else.  Nothing else is able to tear us away from the grasp of our own objectives, desires, and goals to force us to look at what we’d rather not look at.

Do you know what “failure” is?  Do you treat it as an ugly, nasty inconvenience?  If so, I’m afraid you are on the road to 911 experiences in your lives.  Because if we don’t learn from the smaller failures of life, those smaller failures are going to turn into larger ones.  Larger and larger and larger until we eventually listen.  Eventually, we’ll all learn what we need to learn.  The only choice we have, it seems, is when.

Let’s learn from the small problems in our lives so we don’t have to experience the catastrophic ones.

Failure is not what we think it is.