It's about cool

The problem with a child is that he comes into the world without instruction manuals. It is up to the parents to understand its complex functioning, without disassembling it, without having the project in hand, only by observing it from the outside, even if the real life of an individual is the inner one, the one that takes place inside him and that no one sees. Courageous parents must go by intuition, by feeling, by trial and error, a bit like in Cool Jazz (you go to "cool"). Of that son they don't know thoughts, emotions, tastes, inclinations, feelings, defects, desires, talents, dreams, nightmares, nothing, they have to get by trying to do as little damage as possible. And since we are all victims of other victims, fathers and mothers always make some mistakes, even if in absolute good faith.

Of course, if there was a user manual everything would be different.
Turning it on, turning it off, scheduling naps, meals, changes, where to send it to school, what to make it do, what to give it and what not to give it... A whole other life, but maybe it wouldn't be life. The beauty lies in knowing, in discovering that person, while learning to know ourselves better (usually we ignore the content of our own manual). What a great Babel is life, governed by the only true and authentic universal law, which could be Murphy's law (considering the rare cases in which it is denied), instead it is Love, another great "state" absolutely devoid of a shred of handbook.

A few days ago we celebrated the first 25 years of life of the Laboratorio del Suono, the musical dream of the Arsenale della Pace, which we created and treated like a natural child. We worked to give him a conscience, the ability to discern, trying to pass on the lessons of our mistakes, fueling his dreams and then giving him the strength to chase them and make them come true, but also to collect the disappointment in case of failure. Now this creature is an adult, but not yet mature. It has the strength of youth but not the wisdom that (we hope) will come with time.
We are writing his instruction manual now, for the benefit of the people he will interact with, and we are doing it with all the limitations that our intellect and our knowledge have.

One of Murphy's many laws (collected in Arthur Bloch's famous book) claims that if something can go wrong, it will, and in everyone's life there are a thousand episodes that confirm this sad postulate; but another law denies it: that of Hope. It claims that if something goes wrong, it can always change its course, evil can become good, darkness can become light, silence can become harmony and can rewrite the manual of a life, of many lives.
Murphy does not contemplate the importance of mistakes, because it is with them that we grow. Each of us has the right to make mistakes, but also the duty to recognize a mistake and fix it.
My life has always been dominated by Murphy: «As soon as the stewardess serves coffee, the plane encounters turbulence». But Hope never faded away. I hope that even our musical "creature" never forgets this axiom. Then a hit of Cool (Jazz) never hurts!

Mauro Tabasso
NP June / July 2023

P.S.
We would like to thank all the friends of the "Soleri Bertoni Choir" of Saluzzo (CN), Prof. Enrico Miolano, Director of the Choir, Maestro Stefano Eligi (Pianist), all the boys and girls of the choir, and the Headmaster Alessandra Tugnoli of the Liceo Artistico "Soleri Bertoni" which allowed this collaboration.
We are truly honored that on the evening in which we commemorated the first 25 years of life of the Laboratorio del Suono, this splendid choir kept us company, not only singing and performing together with our Orchestra, but enriching us with its joy, its energy and his youth contagious.
We hope the future holds more opportunities for us to share music, life, growth, new experiences and new high hopes.

Photo Andrea Pellegrini / Sermig