(MONEY Magazine) – As the smoke finally clears around the ruins of the World Trade towers, much has changed. We survey a landscape that is stark and unfamiliar. We don't know what comes next.

Yet, as we must, we set about putting our lives in order. A Massachusetts doctor flies to a conference in Australia to present research on colon cancer. A family in Ohio plans a reunion in Hawaii for next summer. A Los Angeles couple step up their contributions to their children's college education funds. Yes, our nation has lost much, but let us mourn only our true losses. If the wild speculation of the past decade has finally been wiped away, that's not such a bad thing. Investing has at last been restored to its proper sphere--no longer a way of life but a way to achieve the life we want. What remains has true value: our work, our families, our communities.

We can take courage from our history. We have come through fierce struggles before, only to rise up even stronger. New York City's golden age, let us not forget, arrived on the heels of World War II. Author Jan Morris in Manhattan '45 evoked the razzle-dazzle brilliance of that era: "The Manhattan skyline shimmered in the imaginations of all the nations.... It was Present tantalizingly sublimated. It was the Future about to occur."

One day a foot will start tapping in the subway to an infectious beat, a comedian will launch a new catchphrase that brings chuckles at the watercooler, an absurd but irresistible fashion trend will sweep the nation, and suddenly the neighbors will once again be talking cheerfully about stocks and second homes at cocktail parties.

We will never forget, but we cannot help but go forward. This much we know.

--PENELOPE WANG