Mines

There is a beautiful phrase by the writer and philosopher Simone Weil: «There exists within me a deposit of gold to be transmitted... There is no one to receive it.
This doesn't give me pain. The gold mine is inexhaustible." Simple words to share an inner certainty and also the solitude typical of those who see far into the future. But there is a fixed point and it applies to everyone: each of us has a gold mine inside, a unique treasure, always different, fueled by experience, by the awareness gained, by encounters, by the love put into circulation, by sometimes even from mistakes.
It is a special toolbox that can be shared and put into service.

When one struggles, here is the support of another who has already traveled that path. When one is in the dark, here is the light that has already illuminated the other's experience. When one is afraid, here is the never empty word of someone who has understood perhaps a little more. The mine inside knows no rankings, there is no one better than the other, no one more or less worthy. Because gold is gold wherever you find it, whether it is a nugget in the rock or a speck in the mud.
The problem is that very often we forget this. Maybe we have learned to no longer look at our navels and to recognize the mine that lives there, but we are no longer capable of contemplating and learning from the mines of others.
It is one of the effects of this polarized time that requires us to always take sides no matter what. On every theme, on every question, on every fact, even on people's hearts and lives. No environment is immune from this drift, not even the community of believers which should have the grammar of love and respect on its lips and on the contrary, is often responsible for a counter-witness.
The outcome is no escape: the impossibility of discovering new treasures. We do not discover treasures when we go behind prejudices and make our point of view absolute.

We don't discover treasures when morality becomes a club and we think that people are made in series. We do not discover treasures when we see the other as a threat and are not available to listen to him, as he is, as a gift. We don't discover treasures when we think we have the truth in our pocket and the claim to tell others what to do in life.
We don't discover treasures when we aren't willing to go beyond fear to change some ideas. We do not discover treasures when we use the framework of our culture as the only tool to understand the world.
We don't discover treasures when we don't let ourselves be challenged by the joy and pain of those who pass by us. We don't discover treasures when we feed the logic of categories and pigeonhole everything: experiences, wounds, resources. We do not discover treasures when we forget that the meaning of life is scattered in crumbs so that everyone can be part of it and then share it.
We do not discover treasures when we feel resolved and self-sufficient, when in reality no one is because we constantly need to accompany ourselves and walk together. We do not discover treasures when ideas give way to ideologies, making us incapable of seeing in the other a man and a woman like me.

How many forgotten treasures! How many missed opportunities! Yes, this is a shame. Luckily, the gold mine is inexhaustible…

Matteo Spicuglia
NP February 2024