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A group of friends sat in a circle on the beach in Huntington, N.Y., one recent night to talk about their progress cultivating tranquility. Initially, it hadn’t gone that well, said Gerard Healy. He’d tried to kayak but the boat he borrowed from his sister was too small. “I got all wet and haven’t used it since,” he said.
The group of five was the Huntington Ben Franklin Circle, one of more than 70 groups that have formed around the country in the last 18 months. The groups focus on cultivating the founding father’s 13 virtues including silence, frugality and humility.
Modeled on Franklin’s Junto, his Philadelphia “club for mutual improvement” that met every Friday evening to discuss the virtues, the modern circles range from invitation-only dinner gatherings to public meetings in municipal libraries.
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