there are the eyes. It can be noted starting from the geometry. For example, we define a segment as the line joining two ends; what happens if at those ends, instead of geometric concepts, we put two people looking at each other face to face? They may notice that they are placed at two different heights, one lower and one higher. It is not a question of hierarchy, but of knowing how to look: this is where piety is born. It means “Look at me”, “I look at you”. In fact, pity is something you ask for when you feel in need of help, and it is something you bring when you recognize that there is someone who needs help. It is not a relationship between equals, yet it can create strong bonds, or strengthen them. Except that in the Italian language this word has also acquired another, very reversed, meaning. Taking pity is an expression to say without appeal, it is like taking it for granted that the request for help is no longer heard. On the contrary, other languages (such as English and French) have protected pity, the one that expresses the humanity of looks, by inventing other words, very similar but very distinct. Thus they keep pure the noblest meaning of pity without confusing it with that of condemnation without appeal.
Fabio Arduini
NP February 2024
