ABSTRACT
The word resilience has become part of our everyday vernacular. News headlines buzz with the term: “Euro Resilience Hints at Shift in Currency’s Role,” 1 “New York Giants Prove Resilient Again in Super Bowl XLVI,” 2 “Haiti’s Earthquake Tests Resilience of Capital’s Hair Stylists, Now Working in Streets.” 3 The word has appeared in the title of memoirs such as the late Elizabeth Edwards’ Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities and has been the topic of numerous self-help books, including Building Resilience in Children and Teens: Giving Kids Roots and Wings and The Resilience Factor: 7 Keys to Finding Your Inner Strength and Overcoming Life’s Hurdles. Musicians have featured resilience in their band names and album titles, 4 and on any given day you can even find hundreds of references to the word on Twitter, with tweets ranging from the poetic— “Dreamers can’t be tamed #resilience” 5 —to the more serious—“65% of Nairobi’s population live in densely populated slums. Thoughts on building # resilience.” 6
