The Great State of Pennsylvania

I want to briefly tell you the story of Rosetto, a small city in Pennsylvania. It was founded by immigrants 1882. The citizenry was uniformly Catholic. All the citizens shared the same faith and thus same church. It was a mining town and everyone's work life rotated around mining. Furthermore they lived in close proximity. A town with houses nearly one on top of the other similar to a small European community. Nothing about this is spectacular. Many cities share similar characteristics, but Rosetto had another factor that made it different. All of the inhabitants of Rosetto came from Roseto, Italy.

There was minimal influence from outside society. Households generally were made up of three generations. So there were tight relationships within family households. The city as a whole had close relationships focused around faith and work. These relationships sustained the citizenry not just emotionally and spiritually, but physically as well.

The proof? Extensive studies show that among the people of Rosetto it was very, very rare for anyone to have a heart attack under the age of 65. This despite poor diets, overweight citizens, and life in the mines. The people of Roseto shared doctors and hospitals with other nearby towns. After all the research eliminated cause after cause the research pointed to only one cause for the longevity of those living in the town. Relationships. Relationships have the power to heal and the power to sustain. Living life in dynamic relationship with others is what we were created for.

I learned of Rosetto in Malcom Gladwell's book "Outliers" and the website http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2376462/.

Remember what we are here for.