The Power Of Legacy: What Will Your Story Be? | Julian Elphick-Smith | TEDxGosport

The present eclipses the past in so much of our modern world. We are the lesser for it. Our stories and those handed down to us have the power to transcend the prevailing NOW.

Recent grandparenthood and a dedication of Thursdays to looking after the grandchildren led me to reflect on the role of the grandparent. It is so much more than entertaining the children and 'giving them back at the end of the day'. Grandparenthood gives the privilege of time to build a legacy: a legacy, beyond the material, of a familial and cultural kind. We communicate our legacy in our stories which confirm our humanity. Such secure roots are doubly important in a technological age of hyper immediacy, self-absorption and shortening attention spans. We should champion the long view and ask ourselves: what has the past shared with me? What story will I embody for the future? Born in Brighton, Julian feels most naturally at home by the sea. He has taught English in the Portsmouth and Gosport area for the greater part of four decades and now resides very happily in Gosport beside Portsmouth Harbour. His family has largely joined him, sharing a passion for the history, setting and sense of community that characterises our home town. Julian is a mediaevalist by specialisation and will speak on the importance of our connection with the past. His life journey, however, has been a little more diverse and taken him from the late night studios of university radio, through the world of ‘big firm’ accountancy in the booming 1980s, to achingly active grandparenthood today. In spite of his enthusiasm for Old English, Latin, church architecture and croquet, children at home and at school ensure that he remains young at heart - at least! This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx