Mrs. Smith (pseudonym) came to school with a box of Kleenex and red eyes. No, our class wasn’t the cause of her pain and sorrow this time. The previous night she had said good-bye to her Air Force husband as he was deployed to Viet Nam.

I am talking with a friend about my career transition of a few years ago. “What are you doing now?” she asks. “I am a resilience trainer.” And then the inevitable question: “What is resilience?” So I explain. Resilience is the indomitable human resource that carries us through a difficulty or crisis.