advocates

Peace advocates. A word like this holds something special. Despite the greatest or most subtle adversities, there is a force that moves things, transforms them, and can redeem the darkest situations: this is for example what Farhad Bitani guest testified at the Arsenale a few years ago. The word advocate is blatantly similar to two others, author and do, so much that one could take inspiration from this similarity to motivate oneself every day to be authors of good deeds for the world. But its true origin sinks into a different terrain, up to the verb favere, that is to favor. The proponent does not invent anything out of thin air. It favors something that already exists and at the same time needs to be helped. Just like a seed, which itself contains what will make it become a plant, but which will not be enough by itself. If the agricultural comparison holds, then it can be declined: peace, like life, must be nurtured, supported, even studied, even enjoyed. It is not for nothing that among the relatives of the peacemakers there are nutritious plants such as broad beans; and the sparks, which rekindle what has gone out.


Fabio Arduini
NP March 2022