TEDx Introduction to the North End.
By Dom Capossela
This little piece is an introduction to a talk I am giving at a Tedx event at Babson College in late March.
In that talk I present the idea that the lifestyle we created for ourselves in the North End is a perfect way to create a community to serve as a bulwark against outside forces inimical to our values.
"Hello, my friends!
How great for me to be counted as part of this extraordinary group of presenters.
“I'm Dom, a father of four and a writer, editor, and publisher,
most recently as the architect and Editor of 'Questo! North End,'
a website celebrating that vibrant Boston neighborhood.
“I grew up in Boston’s Italian working-class North End.
It was in the 1950s,
a decade that coincided with the arrival of groundbreaking inventions like
the telephone, television, the transistor.
And a decade of coast to coast,
North to South cultural shifts,
shifts that debunked the nasty notion of separate but equal,
that brought us rock and roll music and Marlon Brando,
shifts that brought us Abstract Expressionism, the Pill, Playboy magazine, the Feminine Mystique, and the Beat Generation.
“Despite these ongoing cultural seismic tugs and thrusts,
I fondly remember the familiar calm of our family-centric quotidian rhythm.
We went to work or school, or
we stayed home to clean and cook.
“Each evening, we descended upon each other
to share crowded and noisy dinners,
dinners as economical as they were delicious and happy.
“Seventy years later, we live in a world of wars.
How does today’s tumultuous world compare to the world back then?
How do you, my newly-met friends, balance your personal lives with the chaos outside?
“My March presentation will invite Voltaire’s Candide to share some insight
to help us navigate these troubled times.
“My gut tells me that we will find that
sometimes we should stay close to hearth and home,
other times speak at a TEDx conference,
and still others,
simply take a seat and listen to wiser people.”
God bless us all.
