Close but not too close

Maria is a little girl who after a few months of friendship with the Arsenale wrote in a letter that for her "it's like a house, like having a father and a mother in large quantities, like have fun in the park, but with someone. A place to live all my days, happy and sad, but sad or happy, however you will always be well here". Her heart is full of wonder and in a few words she manages to put on paper her gratitude to her in a moment of awareness. At school between a lie, a forgetfulness and an ugly answer to the teacher, in just one week she has collected the record number of 8 notes, with the complicity of her mother who hides the diary regardless of the electronic register where she also accumulates reproaches and reminders.

Mary disseminates false clues around her so as not to let anyone notice the sad truth she has experienced in so many moments of painful failure: she is not at all a smart child and for some strange reason that just doesn't comes back to her, the other children always manage to be better than her, giving her a certain amount of sad days and moments for which she is equipped with tricks and diversions to cope with the unpleasant situation. In the long negotiation started to help her discover and experience the meaning of a sensation unknown to her little life experience, her trust, there are dynamics, times and difficulties that it is impossible to predict. The smart child is buried under all the negative experiences in which she has stumbled, it is impossible to be able to contact her and obtain her collaboration, without first passing by the shame that led her so far from herself and from others.

Lost in sad loneliness, at home she clings to the leftovers and to the din of useless and deceptive things that come out of mum's pocket and through a small screen absorb all her attention, eating her time without us notice it, seductive distraction, empty refuge that allows you to feel less pain. Victim of her own makeup, she with a sleight of hand she manages to be alone even when she is among all the others, close but far away, present and absent at the same time. Grazia Roncaglia is a teacher who also tries to allow her little students to feel stronger, dedicating herself and dedicating time to trying to help everyone reach the safe place they have within themselves: "a state of mind, innate, vast, unlimited, lucid, full of benevolence and empathy and devoid of hostility and aggression.
It is total surrender to the present moment. How to finally get home really, in an intimate and safe place where I feel in touch with myself".

Peace within. A feeling of harmony and strength, within reach of our breath and our silence, a deep sense of protection and reassurance, care and care that we can magically give ourselves, a special place where nothing and nobody can harm us. Reachable by young and old. We are strong because we have someone by our side. Close, but not too close, given the period. We can feel even stronger when we are alone with ourselves. Imprisoned in the hibernation of our homes with no possibility of leaving. We have our breath, our silence and our imagination. To look fearlessly into the eyes of monsters, viruses, ghosts and villains of all kinds. Make them disappear if only we want and choose what color to imagine the sky above us to reach the place where, as Maria would say, we can always feel good. The greatest magic we can do.

Marco Grossetti
NP November 2020