5456

Publish date 21-03-2023

by Andrea Gotico

I've been locked up at home for three weeks due to health problems and, while I'm looking at the blank sheet and wondering about the meaning of writing, the cat walks on the keyboard and types 5456 with a soft step. Who knows what he's trying to tell me? From the look it seems to mean: I gave you the title, now it's your business! Thanks cat, I answer!
I really don't like being in the position of "having to write" because generally I really enjoy doing it and - somehow - in doing so I feel like I'm betraying the reader's trust. It's like in one of those Italian essays, where you go around the words trying to get to the bottom of the page. You know that at most, if you get the punctuation right, you can aim for a six minus.

The cat and I look into each other's eyes and I think it's the word "duty" that fools us. We've all grown up with this phrase in our heads: "Duty first and pleasure second", we are all a bit convinced that every joy must necessarily go through pain, that every peak must go through a big sweat. As if we had to live in constant tension to reach a goal... and then we will finally be happy!
It may be the fever but allow me a slightly bizarre reflection: is this why we only talk more about rights and not more about duties? It may be that we have associated the word duty a little too much with effort/pain and that right with goal/victory. But, in your opinion, was Messi's life really crowned by the World Cup? Was Mbappé really defeated? Isn't it perhaps that we lack a true overview? My grandfather always said: «The secret of life is knowing how to sweat». And to me, dear cat, I think I understand the meaning of the title, let's no longer talk about duties and rights, let's call them more simply 5456.


Andrea Gotico
NP January 2023

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