The x marks the spot
For me, Peniche is a giant precious mass forever willing to be polished and forever resisting it. If this isn’t a story to be told? Well, now, imagine you’re living in it.
What to do when you’re standing on top of a massive amount of energy coming literally from every single cardinal direction; heavy, condensed and thick as fog; slippery and (s)lightly ready to be bewildered by a windstorm?
For me, this swirling wild and stubborn energy is Peniche.
An incitement. An invitation. A call for connection.
TEDx Peniche was all of these, and maybe even more to those who have come to make it happen — I’ll come back here soon. It was also where we came to meet Marco, who had published “The whale that swallowed a spaniard” (click to read an excerpt) two years earlier, in 2017.
“We are organizing a TED1x2 event in Peniche. We want to show the world the potential Peniche has. Join us in making it happen!”
But what does potential really mean?
Isn’t it such a vague word, ambiguous concept? Why does it have such a strong impact on people when you propose it?
Maybe Marco can add some juicy facts and theories around this word, but I’m taking my chance and sharing my thoughts with you already.
I think it’s because potential is a word full of possibility. Full of hope.
Everyone can easily relate to it, it’s hard to miss it — and even harder not to miss it if you tend to be a helpless dreamer like me.
But back to the potential Peniche has. What does that mean to you?
I imagine Peniche as if it was a soul gatherer, collecting dreamers from all around the world since forever, and for all the possible reasons in the universe. It’s made of hopes of helpless dreamers chasing the sun — I really really believe that its geographical orientation has a say in the matter; therefore, it’s full of possibilities. Potential.
Dealing with possibility is not always easy, though
Yes, it has an amazing landscape, but could be better proposed, and maybe less exploited. It’s maybe the most temperate city in Europe, but everyone complains about its weather and propagates myths like you can’t plant trees here because of the salty wind. It’s an almost-island, but has lost contact with its nature and its connection to the whole that makes the council, to its culture and history. Its history wouldn’t fill more than three pages — this one I heard two days ago, my face just lit up in such a heartfelt way, pointing at the historical guide, decided to take someone on an adventure and to explore what’s missing in our ways of transmitting something so precious as our memories and their whereabouts. It has amazing waves to surf, but if you compliment someone about it, they will quickly tell you that there’s way more to it than that. There’s more associations and groups joining efforts to make things happen per square meter than any other town, but there’s never enough of an audience, and yet, everyone perpetuates that nothing really happens here. People are as warm as hosts as tribal in their ways.
In sum, it’s full of contradictions waiting for proposals to bring out the best of those same contradictions. Imagine what they can become once we break through the first layers of opposition and resistance. To live with contradiction, to flower for resilience, to honor diversity. To practice curiosity.
Both editions of TEDx Peniche brought up these conversations. If the first one, Strong Bonds (2018)3, was an invitation to discover why we (humans) need to nurture what connects us; the second, Contracts (2019)4, came to explore how we might thrive in uncertainty. Both of them leading us (Komuhn) deeper into the high seas of the structure of belonging and well-being.
As I shared before, I met my team here in Peniche, during the organization of TEDx Peniche; here is where we are exploring why and how we want to be taking care of our spaces and places to become, rediscovering the dynamics of caring for and its impact on how we sense belonging and feel well-being. Here is where we are making all these questions and sharing our learnings with the rest of the world.
This whole here that is Peniche.
The land, the sea, the beach.
The people, the traditions, the culture.
The legends, the stories, the history.
The feelings, the emotions, the memory.
How do we keep it, how do we share it?
Here. I’ve got something for you.
Peniche — Treasure Island
More than a book,
a hope to become
more than a place.
Learn more about this publication:
TED is on a mission to discover and spread ideas that spark imagination, embrace possibility and catalyze impact. Our organization is devoted to curiosity, reason, wonder and the pursuit of knowledge — without an agenda. We welcome people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world and connection with others, and we invite everyone to engage with ideas and activate them in your community.
TEDx is a grassroots initiative, created in the spirit of TED’s overall mission to research and discover “ideas worth spreading.” TEDx brings the spirit of TED to local communities around the globe through TEDx events. These events are organized by passionate individuals who seek to uncover new ideas and to share the latest research in their local areas that spark conversations in their communities. TEDx events include live speakers and recorded TED Talks, and are organized independently under a free license granted by TED. These events are not controlled by TED, but event organizers agree to abide by our format, and are offered guidelines for curation, speaker coaching, event organizing and more. They learn from us and from each other. More than 3000 events are now held annually.
TEDx Peniche Strong Bonds (2018):
What connects us to others, to places, to the world; what keeps us united; what gives us identity and meaning; what makes us belong; what creates trust, involvement, purpose. What are the relationships that we depend on to bring logic to our lives and what happens when that logic is challenged. How many connections we don't know of and how many things seemingly unrelated are connected in the most extraordinary ways.
At a time when it feels that what divides us is far greater than what unites us it's urgent to understand that we have the power to build an alternative future based on new strong bonds.
TEDx Peniche Contrasts (2019):
Life is made of contrasts. There are the things we see and the things we don't. There are the things we know, the things we know we don't know, and the things we don't know we don't know. There are things we don't understand and things we do, and these are the ones we care about. Let us understand more. Let us care more.
Lê a versão em português desta publicação:
O X marca o local
https://andreaadao.substack.com/p/o-x-marca-o-local