The terrorist attacks of 9/11 have pushed us into what is sometimes called a limit situation: a time of material, emotional, and spiritual upheaval that forcibly takes us beyond the boundaries of normalcy. . . . Everything we thought permanent and absolutely dependable is shaken; everything we thought unquestionable is up for grabs. The old safety zones and security barriers no longer protect us.
Horribly painful as such a time of disorientation and fear can be, it also offers an opportunity — a kairos, as the gospel writers would have said — for seeing, learning, and growing. . . . As Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, "People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them."
— Kerry Walters, Jacob's Hip