My, what beauty!
I tagliaboschi (1949), Particolare
No Papeete Beach, no Billionaire... For many of us humans, this summer has been very different from diving into more or less exclusive and risky social events, from the spasmodic search for pleasure.
L'editoriale by Stefano Lavorini
Rather, it was a break to savor the joy of "almost" normality after the lockdown period, perhaps in the company of loved-ones and acquaintances, and to choose more carefully how to use our energies.
It was simply to be able to think: «today I am free to do what I want, to taste the things that please me, the joys that present themselves to me; today I have the opportunity to build good memories for old age, to make beautiful discoveries, to return to surprise me with amazing images in their naturalness, with smells and scents that give me back the experience of what surrounds me, of flavors that anticipate ancient promises and new expectations».
Holidays, by definition warm and sunny, only reverberate the usual commitments, the frantic running often forgetting the destination; on the other hand, they are the time which can contain everything, «even a large part of the essential», when the present is awareness of the past and planning for the future. They are the pause during which we choose to engage in different, age-old matters, which we have been told about or have read only in books … like how to take care of an olive grove.
Journalist Michele Serra, in his column in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica "L’amaca" a few years ago, wrote: «In the humility of manual labor, and especially agricultural work, there is a measure that dissolves many deceptions, and suggests the most obvious, the most basic of redepartures: bend your back. Physical fatigue was, for our ancestors, a curse. For many prison regimes it is a punishment. For an era sick with virtuality, it could be a cure».
«Good morning» said the merchant.
He was a merchant of perfected pills that quenched one’s thirst. He swallowed one a week and no longer felt the need to drink.
«Why are you selling this stuff?» said the little prince.
«It's a great saving of time» said the merchant. «The experts have made calculations. You save fifty-three minutes a week».
«And what do you do with those fifty-three minutes?»
«You do what you want with them…»
«I," said the little prince, "if I had fifty-three minutes to spend, I would walk ever so slowly towards a fountain…».
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry »
To be balanced people we need dreams, something that exalts us and helps us to look beyond the monotony of daily rituals. Something that helps us bear in mind what we pray for, because what we believe we want does not always correspond to what makes us happy.
So, let's choose an improvised activity, which is a redemption from rhythms conditioned by haste and fear, and is equally a break that allows us to regenerate our creativity, or - why not? - to send our brains on 'for a while, as long as we don't forget reality.
So, welcome back and please don't forget to put on your mask.
