Small gesture grow

They are crumbs, but of humanity. They are the traces of those who made us grow, love, pray, smile at life. And they are there even now. I look for traces very often in uncertain dawns, in shopping malls, in neighborhoods and towns.

And I find them. They are those of the smiles of young people who cross the street to go to school. Sometimes they joke, even if they are dazed by sleep, and the other day one of them gave way to a tired adult. Chapeau! They are those of those (few!) who, at the supermarket, give way to those who only have a liter of milk in their hand. Or those of those who do not honk their horns at every imperceptible slowdown in the street or put their indicators on like the last of the Mohicans. That's how it's done! They are the small gestures of those who, in the offices of the untraceable doctors, still know how to light up the eyes of hope even if, perhaps, they hide concern for the tests or the doctors themselves who do not demand incredible fees such as 500 euros for specialist visits, but much less: there are some. How beautiful the pace of humanity that regains rhythm! Perhaps, the incomprehensible cruelties in Ukraine and the Holy Land, the increasingly violent news, the shameful selfishness of a small group of billionaires, the defeats of life "slyricize" the feelings of even the most hardened optimist.

However, the push of intelligent hearts resists. At the bar there are those who leave the "coffee suspended" or in the markets "the shopping suspended". There are multinationals and famous brands that fill the vans of parish Caritas or groups of volunteers; women and men who pay out of their own pockets for solidarity with those who have less. They do it to feel good and breathe deeply that gust of humanity that, throughout history, has made everyone's heart beat (or almost everyone's) when they see those who drown in the Mediterranean Sea, starving children or, worse, injured and killed, queuing for life. There are people who take the sick to therapy or assist them to defeat fear and loneliness. They exist! This is being told to you by someone who has chronicled the greatest tragedies in our country, the murders, the wickedness, but has understood that people's hearts have not hardened: because in many neighborhoods there are unaware sentinels who provide assistance or report pain and assistance groups who, since they have seen healthcare public in crisis, they build "rescue networks", solidarity clinics. Looking up, even the ayatollahs of Iran had some jolts, freeing (for a little while) the woman who defends rights; sooner or later even in Ukraine and Gaza, spaces of hope will open up in hearts poisoned by millions of dead and wounded. Humanity is there and it is the proof of the incurable desire to sow good and some seeds of hope, perhaps even with small everyday gestures.
 

NP January '25
Gian Mario Ricciardi