911 Revisited Again – And Our Future
September 11, 2008 by Anne Wayman
Filed under Jobs
(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
I don’t know why I haven’t blogged every anniversary about 911 – it may be that the resulting attacks on our Constitution and our Bill of Rights have discouraged me from it. I did, however, post in 2006
As it happens today I’m actually writing a bit about Martin Seligman who developed the theory of Learned Helplessness. He found that how we are in the world as individuals has much more to do with the way we explain things to ourselves, particularly negative things, than you might expect. We are also influenced by how others explain those same things to us.
When 911 actually happened, I was just ending a teleconference with a group of spiritual people about spiritual things and paying it forward and how to be better people. Moments before the phone call was cut off because our time was up, someone gasped and told us that she saw a plane hit the trade towers on her TV which was silently running in background. I had a television at the time and like so many immedately turned it on only to watch in horror as events unfolded that day.
One of my internal responses to myself was a question: How can we turn this awful event toward peace and good?
It’s a question that, even though I have no answer, has stayed with me. And I wonder what might happen if we moved our self-talk from fear to faith and confidence, or at least a wondering of how whatever is going on can be turned toward a world that works for everyone.
Write well and often,
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Anne,
I don’t know if this is any kind of answer, but in some ways my move towards freelancing has been motivated by one small event during 9/11 – the voice that came over the loudspeakers telling people in the towers to stay where they were. How many people died that day because they did what they were told to do? Working in an office is about wearing what you are supposed do, being where you are expected to be, and doing what you are told.
I have chosen a career that allows me the freedom to decide where I want to be and when I want to work. It doesn’t make up for anything, but it does give me some peace of mind.
Jenn! Wow, I never heard that before… scary for sure. And you and I freelance for many of the same reasons