In this strange period of suspension from life to which we were all used, I feel a little lost, and at the same time recovered.
We are slowly taking up our previous life, but something has changed; it is not easy to say what but personally it is as if I have gained a greater awareness of time, of how to appreciate it and evaluate it in its limitedness.
These three months of boredom, far from the fast pace and stress of daily work, first have bored me and then enlightened me. The slow flow of the days, always the same; getting up late without a commitment before me, watching for hours the deserted road in front of the house and the trees and the birds flitting here and there and all that silence … it was not only negative.
Italy has stopped, first struck, then suspended … quiet, worried and caring, controversial and aware, rich and poor, cultured and ignorant.
My old, beloved Italy is still here … the Country I belong to; the controversial, paradoxical, respectable, cultured and ignorant, romantic, beautiful and provincial place where I was born and where I love to live in spite of everything.
A lot of things have changed, perhaps we have learned to appreciate more the time shared with lovers, friends, ourselves.
Maybe it is dutiful to stop for a moment to reflect, to observe the relative immensity of the sky, the trees, the streams, the butterflies and the bees, the sounds and the aromas … maybe this is where our circle can be closed, balance can be sought even if only for a few moments.
It’s already something, it’s already a lot, and it’s free.
It is a gift and this suspension from our rhythm and perhaps will help us to understand it more.
Italy … my Country, to which my blog is dedicated, initially devalued and then re-evaluated, is a great place to stop, think and talk with an old or new friend, maybe sitting in a a small provincial restaurant, in a small room, at a small table set with a white tablecloth, where a silent and jovial waiter brings a steaming dish of penne all’arrabiata pasta covered with grated parmesan, and a glass is soon filled with red wine, and where a chocolate profiterol, a coffee and a grappa relax the mind and body.
It is an ancient Country, often slow and asleep like an old man who has been through so much and falls asleep in a chair. A Country much less fast and technological than many others, where people often stop and eat very slowly compared to many other places.
We will probably never have our inter-space rockets; nor our web giants. We will certainly take advantage of the progress of others and at the same time we will develop and maintain our excellence, and we will wait for the World to observe us and for someone who lives and works where the future is daily created decides to come at least once in his life to try to sit down in a small provincial restaurant, in a small room, at a small table set with a white tablecloth, where a silent and jovial waiter places a steaming plate of penne pasta with a parmesan-Reggiano sauce and a glass is filled with red wine , and where a chocolate profiterol, a coffee and a grappa relax the mind and body.
Humanity is launched, like a rocket that cannot stop, towards the future and it is probably right that it should be so; everything flows, proceeds and evolves like a stalk of grass that grows in a meadow; you cannot stop it, you must let it grow and live, cycle upon cycle, just as humanity must do.
In this great and natural race towards the future I like to think I can stop with an old friend in a small place, to eat, drink and remember … and in my Country I still think it can be easily done, luckily, almost everywhere.
I really hope that this particular wealth of Italy, when other Countries have many other different, does not disperse in the future but rather becomes an integral part of it.
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