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Look, read, and listen to some of my work including photography, videos, and presentations. Topics may include American Dream American Decency American innovation American history American spirit American Experiment Nelson Mandela New England history New England innovation Boston history Boston innovation Boston and China Boston Children's Hospital Landscape Architecture Environmental history Urban parks Prouty Garden Sustainability Family history Reconciliation and forgiveness South Africa Photo Gallery Video Gallery Document Gallery

I was named for two Tom Paines.  One of them was the first Paine forebear to set foot on these shores. ​ But I was also named for Dad’s hero, the free-thinking global citizen Tom Paine, best known for having written Common Sense, the tinder that sparked American Independence. In so many important ways he is our ideological forebear. Thomas Paine Hi, thanks for stopping by! In a world of too much scrolling and not enough strolling, may this website do its small part to build bridges across space and time, bridges that in some modest way are inspired by the arc of the moral universe. Only connect! May this site inspire spirited conversations about our place in our community, our nation, our world, and our history, and share grounds for cautious optimism, one decent story at a time. We all have more in common, and are more connected, than we may realize. Feel free to comment. Onward! Message Me I'm Tom Paine What’s in a name? I was on my way to becoming a landscape architect, trying to safeguard nature, and drawn to beautiful landscapes, when I found out that the name “Paine” descends from “paganus,” which originally meant “rural person.” The name soon came to mean “pagan”—a religious free-thinker, rejecting the urban elites. I was named for two Tom Paines. One of them was the first Paine forebear to set foot on these shores, who I later discovered had styled himself “Thomas Paine Senior of Eastham, in the jurisdiction of Plymouth in New England in America, Cooper.” This cooper also built windmills, the high-tech of the 1600s, across Cape Cod. But I was also named for Dad’s hero, the free-thinking global citizen Tom Paine , best known for having written Common Sense , the tinder that sparked American Independence. In so many important ways he is our ideological forebear. OG Thomas Paine showed the world just how a regular guy with common sense could be a big threat to inaction and antiquated thinking. I began my career trying to safeguard public open space such as the iconic commons and greens spread across New England. I have come to realize that they symbolize the promise of America and its ideals. What better metaphor for cherishing our ideological common ground, and nurturing community? May this website do the same, one visitor at a time. The same thinking prompted me to use a photomosaic for the homepage. Randomly juxtaposing images from one’s life, one’s forebears, one’s children, grandchildren, friends, and passions in a photomosaic—each tile of which is composed of digital bytes, each of them in turn composed of electric impulses interacting with silicone, in a vast cosmos of subatomic particles defying time and space—evokes one’s place-moment in the space-time continuum, the human family, and this planet we all call home. Biography Tom Paine is a lifelong learner, local historian, and environmental advocate focusing on the intersection of local history, historic preservation, sustainability, and public space design. He is active with private philanthropic organizations promoting the preservation of cultural resources, as President of the Friends of Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site, a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society , member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Vice-President of the Robert Treat Paine Historical Trust , and Board member of the Wellesley (MA) Historical Society . He is an authority on the Boston area’s astonishing legacy of firsts across many fields of human endeavor. For over four decades he practiced landscape architecture focusing on sustainability and cultural preservation in the U.S., Great Britain, Taiwan, and mainland China. His bilingual book Cities with Heart (Beijing: China Architecture and Building Press, 2015) is a celebration of open space in the great cities of the world and a compendium of best practices for urban open space planning and design. He received a BA in Architectural Sciences from Harvard College, Masters in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

Click anywhere on the mosaic of Tom to magnify and view the tile images.

I hope you have enjoyed reading and browsing my website. Please feel free to contact me below. I would love to hear from you. May the conversation continue! Netizen Tom Paine Citizen Tom Paine Common Sense Common Ground Common Interests Boston Common Commonwealth Massachusetts Thomas Paine Thomas M Paine Thomas Pain Tom Pain Contact Me I hope you have enjoyed reading and browsing my website. Please feel free to contact me below. I would love to hear from you. May the conversation continue! First Name Last Name Email Message Send Thank you! Tom

Welcome to Common Ground!  May you find sought-after information in my Blog Cabin and Gallery.  May you find other unexpected connections—the common ground of decency most of us share despite the diversity of experiences and connections that uniquely define each of us, like cells in a personal mosaic. Mine goes something like this... Netizen Tom Paine Aligning vision, courage, and decency Welcome to Common Ground! May you find sought-after information in my Blog Cabin and Gallery. May you find other unexpected connections—aligning the vision, courage, and decency that most of us share despite the diversity of experiences and connections that uniquely define each of us, like cells in a personal mosaic. Mine goes something like this... Enlarge Mosaic 37,000 photos on stored on cloud 7,500 fitbit points/day (should be 10,000) 50 years married 25 foreign countries visited 7 grandchildren 3 children Blog Cabin Tom Paine Dec 22, 2024 27 min read A Forebear Foreshadows Indiana Jones Tom Paine Apr 8, 2024 5 min read 20/20 Blindsight Tom Paine Mar 25, 2024 2 min read There is No Planet B Tom Paine Feb 27, 2024 24 min read Sense and Sentimentality Tom Paine Feb 20, 2024 7 min read Our Backstories, Front and Center Tom Paine Dec 4, 2023 18 min read The Three Ds of 3-D