By the time you read this, six weeks will have passed since September 11, 2001. Collectively, we will likely be past the initial stages of grief and shock, having moved on to the well-understood stage of grief known as acceptance. It is entirely possible that when you read this we will be at war and more names will have been added to the list of lost countrymen. Most of you will have returned to your normal routine at the salon as you set about defining “normal” in a world where planes deliberately crash into buildings and unknown enemies threaten not only our way of life, but our very life.

But today is September 18, 2001, just one week since IT all happened. Today we paused at 9:05 a.m. for a moment of silence to mark the instant that life as we know it went up in a ball of fire. As I sit before a blank page on the computer screen, it feels unseemly to write about nail polish or fashion trends or increasing profitability.

I’ve been wondering how to address current events in the pages of NAILS. Surely there will be personal stories we’ll bring you in coming months of nail techs touched by tragedy, and of heroes proved. We’ll remark on the effect of business, we’ll relate tales of fund-raising activity, and we’ll no doubt uncover inspiring stories to share.  But that’s for later. Today, we just acknowledge that we are all affected. Regardless of whether you do nails or you wash windows or you do surgery, if you were human on September 11, 2001, you, too, were affected in some way. We make no distinction whether you are mourning for a brother related to you by blood or simply a fellow American. There is no hierarchy for patriotism. We all hurt.

But if ever there were lessons to be learned, blessings to be divined, now is the time. Certainly, current events may make nail care seem trivial, meaningless, when considered in light of any great tragedy. But I believe there is dignity and importance in the work you do-we all do. Besides the very nature of your work, honest business – whether it is a small, family-owned, and entrepreneurial company that supports our industry, or one of big ones that sustains our economy- contribute greatly to the economy, support many families, and are the very fabric of what makes this country strong.

That’s important. Business is good.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, Click here.

Read more about