Dear SMDPA members,
It is a great honor and privilege to address you all as Governor. I am taking the reins from gifted leadership, while continuing to collaborate with a great team. I trust that we will be able to maintain and extend the excellent level of service you have come to enjoy.
In January, the Wall Street Journal featured an essay, “The Lifelong Power of Close Relationships,” by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz. Both men are clinical therapists, directors of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, and co-authors of their recent book, The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness (Simon & Schuster, 2023). Dr. Waldinger’s TED Talk about the Harvard Study, “What Makes a Good Life,” has been viewed more than 42 million times and is one of the ten most-watched TED talks ever. You can perform an internet search to learn more.
The essay’s subtitle began, “Social fitness—cultivating strong connections to others—is at least as important as proper nutrition, physical exercise and adequate sleep.” This conclusion derives from nearly a century of survey data, as Harvard followed a series of cohorts throughout most of their adult lives – more than 724 men and 1,300 of their male and female descendants over three generations. In the authors’ words:
“Close personal connections are significant enough that if we had to take all 85 years of the Harvard Study and boil it down to a single principle for living, one life investment that is supported by similar findings across a variety of other studies, it would be this: ‘Good relationships keep us healthier and happier.’ Period. If you want to make one decision to ensure your own health and happiness, it should be to cultivate warm relationships of all kinds.”
As direct descendants from 26 of America’s first families, we are in a unique position to appreciate the wisdom of these findings. We view our relationships with family and friends as extending well beyond those with whom we have personally interacted – from grandparents down to grandchildren – but also to those we have come to know and respect through our research. Our relationships stretch back 400 years, and even across the world to those millions of “Mayflower” cousins alive today whom we have not yet met. We are all kindred, and we work hard to keep alive yesterday’s memories and today’s possible connections.
If all of America knew what we know – how interconnected we are – there would not be nearly as much polarization and alienation as appears today!
For example, I serve on the Board of another lineage society. A fellow Board member and I always got along quite well, even collaborating on an extensive project. After working together for months, I finally asked about her lineage. We discovered to our mutual delight that her ancestor moved back in 1645 from Plymouth, MA to help found the town of Eastham, MA, along with my ancestor. These two families moved together again 20 years later, to what is now Little Compton, RI; and then a few years after that to help found the town of Piscataway, NJ. Their descendants intermarried for several generations afterward. Warm relationships like these are baked into America’s collective DNA – they just need to be brought more often to current consciousness.
Therefore, let us stay strong in celebrating our Pilgrim ancestors and connecting with each other. And let “warm relationships” be our guiding theme for 2023.
James (Jim) Campbell SMDPA Governor [email protected]
