Their import is a constant across the decades—or longer — serving as models that guide and shape our thinking and perceptions. The key is to recognize when we are being presented with such a lesson, since their presence is often not obvious and their instructive significance frequently escapes our notice.
The exigencies of a national (family or personal) crisis place demands on a country (people) that can almost never be seen in advance or planned for. From one day to the next, conditions change, circumstances shift and previously reliable relationships are thrown into uncertainty. It’s easy from the safety of time and distance to claim that such life-altering events should have been foreseen, but at the time of their occurrence, most radical incidents come as a complete surprise.
Steve Feinstein
Principles Never Fail 