STEVE SMITH -- What’s up

A day after the terrorist attack in New York, I went to a nearby

Starbucks to satisfy my craving for a caramel frappucino. It’s a big,

gooey drink that is topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce.

As I got out of the car in my driveway, I knocked the full drink

against the door and spilled it all over my pants and shoes. For only a

moment, I ran silently through the special vocabulary I use for such

times. But just as quickly, I stopped.

At that moment, I remembered the victims of the terrorist attack in

New York and the brave firefighters, police officers and assorted rescue

workers who are still sifting through the rubble and will be for many

months.

“What in the world,” I thought, “do I have to be upset about?”

I grabbed a garden hose, quickly sprayed the driveway clean and went

inside the house. My nice pair of shoes was ruined but I didn’t care.

Last Sunday, Daily Pilot sports editor Roger Carlson covered local

high school football on the front page of the sports section not with

box scores and highlights but with these important opening remarks:

“There’s a gnawing sense that in times like these there are not very

many important things that one does over the course of a day, that most

everything on the regular schedule is pretty trivial.”

Carlson is correct. Of course, there are times when it’s easy to

forget just how good we have it, but over the long haul, this perspective

would serve us all well.

My wife Cay and I shared this sentiment with friends Joe Norris and

Rosie Tomasek one week ago. Standing on the sidelines of a soccer game at

TeWinkle School, we agreed that the attitude adjustment has been a good

development.

Rosie and her husband, Ed, have just completed a yearlong experiment

in which Rosie went to a 9-5 job and Ed played Mr. Mom. I am pleased to

report that these two daring people have found domestic success beyond of

what they could have imagined last summer. Ed is now back to work at a

job that gives him much more family time and Rosie is an at-home mom. “We

can have coffee together in the morning,” said Rosie. Here’s a shining

example of two people who didn’t need a terrorist attack to realign their

priorities.

My brother, Michael, who lives just across the East River from where

the World Trade Center towers stood, told me that even in New York there

has been an attitude adjustment.

“People seem to be a lot more patient,” Michael said. “You don’t even

hear a lot of horns honking.” This in a city where a bad attitude was a

badge of honor.

Not far from Michael, politicians in Washington were all on one side

of the aisle as they authorized the president to take action against the

terrorists responsible for the attack. The new attitude was on Capitol

Hill, too.

“There are certain things in our lives that have become unimportant

that were so important before,” said James Thurber, director of American

University’s Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies. “It’s

almost embarrassing to be overly partisan at a time like this.”

If we take away any lessons from the disaster in New York, besides the

obvious need for more security, it should be Carlson’s reminder that most

of what we do each day is “pretty trivial.” That’s not to say that it’s

time for all of us to join a convent or sell all our possessions and live

in caves. What it means is that when things don’t go our way, we should

temper our reactions accordingly.

OK, so the job center frustrates Chris Steel. OK, so the development

of Fairview Park hasn’t moved along as quickly as perhaps Libby Cowan

would like. OK, so the fate of the El Toro airport is still a question

mark.

These matters will eventually get resolved but not to everyone’s

satisfaction. The most important thing is the process and that we

remember to treat each other decently and honestly during our debates and

never forget the fact that we live in a society where we are free to

express our thoughts without fear of government reprisal.

The terrorist attack in New York has brought tremendous grief even to

our community, 3,000 miles away. But it has also brought a great gift: an

opportunity to correct the course of each life and to adjust our

priorities so that we understand, as Carlson does, as the Tomaseks do, as

the Washington politicians do and even as New Yorkers themselves do, that

when we are told our lives will never be the same, we have the power to

make that a good thing.

That attitude can even overcome a ruined pair of shoes.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer. Readers

may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at (949) 642-6086.