Love to live

Claudio is a middle-aged man, I couldn't figure out how old he really is because his appearance tells of a troubled life full of suffering.

Claudio is separated, and even if before him many others have failed to complete the promise of "forever", it is clear that this failure of his has marked him a lot. He still lives with his mother, from whom he returned after the separation, but he can hardly be accused of doing it for convenience since his elderly roommate is not self-sufficient.
When diabetes made him less handsome, Claudio also lost his job and, like a boxer staggering under the blows of a muscular opponent, he found himself fighting in the darkest corner of his mind, where even dignity loses points with negative moods and where he experienced the deepest depression.
But Claudio tried anyway, as long as his strength allowed him, and he sought a ransom that he believed possible even if only for the honesty that dwells in his intellect. Unfortunately, day after day, hope has given way to disappointment, and all his dreams of revenge have turned into a chimera punctuated by the inexorable passage of days that are always the same. Here Claudio has lost his friends, eliminating the daily visits and making the one with his mother the only moment of sharing of his day. For Claudio it all seemed over, but in these difficult moments, in suffering, in pain, the man he truly loves can believe in a rebirth. And I'm not saying it, God forbid, the death of Jesus Christ on the cross tells it simply and clearly.
Loving to live, suffering to resurrect, two very similar sides of the same coin, and that only those who have lived them deeply can recognize them as such.

One day Claudio chose to try again and with the grit, determination and will that are recognized only in men who are never tame, but also with the kindness that characterizes those filled with love, he joined a volunteer group created to restore beauty in a country where neglect overshadowed it.
Gradually Claudio joined the group, made up of pensioners, young people, women, the unemployed but also employed outside working hours. In short, a very heterogeneous group but with a common characteristic: everyone, in some way, was looking for a community to live in.

Claudio met Gigi, Mauro, Pasquale, Caterina, Turi, Giovanni, Maurizio, Paola, and many others; he painted bus shelters, iron railings, wooden fences, cleaned up flowerbeds and manhole covers, mounted notice boards, but he also fixed paths in the woods, positioned road signs and washed public toilets, and various other more or less humble jobs. He didn't earn money and didn't ask for it, even when his disability pension couldn't cover the daily expenses.
For months he dedicated himself with body and soul to bringing beauty back to the country where he lives, and every time someone thanked him for what he achieved together with his new friends, his commitment increased accordingly.

One day, unexpectedly, the mayor of the town summoned him and offered him a stable job as a municipal maintainer, and the proposal alone made him cry, but before he decided to accept, and as yet another confirmation of his great humility, Claudio answered as it rarely happens to hear: «…but will I be able to?»

Claudio's story, like all those that tell people who have had a troubled life like his, can only give hope, because we all experience moments of difficulty and suffering, but if we learn to love to live we can only resurrect , Always!

Max Laudadio
NP January 2023