Citation

Rogers JR, Soyka KM. Crisis 2004; 25(1): 27-29.

Affiliation

Department of Counseling, University of Akron, OH 44325-5007, USA. jrrogers@uakron.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, International Association for Suicide Prevention, Publisher Hogrefe Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

15384654

Abstract

Responding to the request to write about our work at "ground zero" the site of the former World Trade Center in New York City following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack has proved to be a challenging task. Challenging in that we have found it difficult to discuss and honor our experiences with mere words alone. Thus, this work has been "in progress" for a long period of time. Part of the challenge is reflected for us in the title of the article by the choice of the word "grace." That is, writing about grace at ground zero does not fit comfortably with our scientist-practitioner training. In searching for words to describe our experiences, however, we tried out a number of alternatives to "grace" including luck, chance, coincidence, and serendipity. None of these alternatives quite captured our experiences and our sense that certain events may best be conceptualized as unsolicited "gifts" that facilitated our work at the WTC site. So while the term "grace" may seem out of place in the scientific and professional literature, it fits well as a descriptor of some of our experiences as we continue our struggle to understand

Language: en