Resilience

Publish date 09-06-2021

by Corrado Avagnina

Just the word, said a very old advertisement for Carosello from the 1960s. But sometimes it's not even enough. Because not everyone gives you the same meaning or means the same thing with it. Yet there are words that emerge in a particular historical moment and that take on an emblematic meaning, such as to summarize handfuls of messages in a single expression (then to be declined with a bit of logic, of course).

For example, today there is a lot of talk about "resilience", which is something more and different from resistance, tenacity, perseverance, determination. In difficulties - and today they are not lacking and they are also heavy - this attitude to "resilience" is often cited, which challenges people asking them not to give up, not to let go, not to abdicate ... but to hold up in the challenges that arise. By placing on the field not only being rocky and firm, without retreating, but being able to look further, to get back on track, to counteract the headwind and treacherous waters with the will to reverse direction and row in the right course, despite everything. "Resilience" is being strong and resourceful, without resigning oneself to the worst that is to come, but reversing disaster situations. Of course, it's quick to say it, but then when you try to prove the opposition you really need to be equipped, otherwise you end up overwhelmed, unfortunately.

With the coronavirus health emergency that still troubles us with assorted risks and inconveniences, with black prospects on the front of work, professions, employment, the real economy, with the national policy that it has repeatedly disappointed, with the daily efforts in homes and villages… here resilience is the card to be played with conviction, also because it requires that we be… resilient together, so as not to be shipwrecked. Nobody saves himself alone, Pope Francis remembers on several occasions. He recently added: "It is the strength of soul that makes us capable of bearing the weight of personal and community problems, makes us welcome the diversity of the other, makes us persevere in good even when everything seems useless, makes us stay on the way even when boredom and sloth assail us". Because every day we have to start over. Resilience is not a parenthesis, but a way of being and being in the world. Leaving an imprint of humanity. Of course, in these prolonged moments of pandemic effect, everything becomes more complicated.

But that is precisely why we need to put in place suitable attitudes. If the game were easy, it would be enough personal and structural equipment to a minimum ... union. But we are on an exceptional quadrant, perhaps never seen in these proportions, with repercussions of which we do not know the extent in the present and in the future. We need to be stronger, for real. Resilience will be the litmus test.


Corrado Avagnina
NP March 2021

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