Event Recaps: Dialogue Nights

Responding to a surge in interest among young people over the last year relating to the need for self-love and self-care, this Dialogue Nights—embraced the topic as one worthy of investigation.

The Ikeda Center’s second virtual Dialogue Nights, held on May 14, 2021, took place just as life in the United States was starting its long-anticipated transition toward “a new normal."

As 2021 commenced, and with the prospects for in-person events still many months away, it only seemed right to re-launch Dialogue Nights in virtual form. The March 5 gathering, called “Author a New Chapter – You are the Playwright,” proved the wisdom of that decision.

There is the courage of superheroes and soldiers at war. Blockbuster courage, let’s call it. Then there is the courage of everyday people living regular lives. This was the courage explored in this Dialogue Nights.

Millennials are often called “the anxious generation”—and for good reason, said Center Program Manager Lillian I in her welcoming remarks for the fifth and final Dialogue Nights of 2019.

The fourth Dialogue Nights event of 2019 was devoted to exploring the meaning of friendship and its power to help us meet and overcome life’s challenges—small and large and in between.

How can we live true to ourselves? And what does that really mean? Is there a difference between being original and being authentic? These were just a few of the questions discussed at the Center’s third Dialogue Nights of 2019.

That more than 80 Boston-area university students and young professionals showed up to explore the topic of “the loneliness epidemic” was telling, suggesting that loneliness is a phenomenon of great concern to their age group.

To be able to overcome failure, often one must transform one's view of what failure is. Is it really something to be feared? Are the consequences of failure as dire as we frequently imagine they will be? What is the relationship between success and failure?