If you type “Resilience and the American Spirit” into Google you get a million hits in less than a second. I am not surprised. It is what makes us the greatest nation on the planet. Just like THPL, the American spirit is not about riches nor is it about materiality, it is all about a resilient mindset. And there are few places that demonstrate resiliency and spirit more than the people of Boston. Descendants of proud immigrants and hardworking entrepreneurs the city and its people have been through a lot over the past 200 + years, but I have to say that this past week tested the people and the town and its resolve at a different level. The good news is that it appears that we are at the end of this very tough time for the residents of Watertown and all Bostonians. And even though the rest of our American family could only watch from a distance, we so vividly felt the raw emotions of this surreal week, that we all felt connected just like our forefathers were as they worked through challenge after challenge.
What started with a tragedy at an iconic event and ended with a massive manhunt in a quiet suburb of Boston brought together a city, one like many metropolitan areas of the country, that can become sterile and without feeling.. but not so in Boston.
We know a few things about the THPL - one of them is to role model behavior. I think Boston showed us, just that this week - it demonstrated how a community can pull together and stay close and provide all of support necessary to make it through tough times. We realize in these times that we do need each other – that community is what makes us feel good and it is what we use to bring hope and confidence that all will be well.
And as we end the week with the first level of closure to this difficult week I think we have once again shown that we are resilient, we have American spirit and we have even more reason to believe that THPL exists in all of us – we just have to find a way to take it out and show it off.
Loving Life and charged up by my brothers and sisters of Boston.
Ciao
joe