The joy of living

  The storm is over…” Yes, maybe, we're past the middle of the night. We all remember the autumn-winter of 2019: the howling of the ambulances, the terror of seeing super-blind nurses and doctors arriving at the house, the then Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in the beige pullover making, visibly shaken, endless and uncertain press conferences. There was no vaccine, there was no hope. Now everything has changed! And, then, slowly you can begin to find the will to live again.

Young people — It is possible to rediscover the taste of chestnuts. Yes, those full of innocent serenity in the courtyards. Almost all the speakers have reopened their gates and doors. The others will soon. How nice it is to rediscover the rituals of growth that we, lucky ones, have had: the runs in the meadows, the games of hide and seek, the desire to smile sweaty rotten but happy. No, it has nothing to do with the beautiful tennis lessons, basketball games, padel... It's simply rediscovering the beauty of life. For young people it is, very often, a return to the "boys of via Paal", those of the innocent gangs who faced each other in the chiaroscuro of the villages. I saw, in the greenery, in front of the house, among the hills that once belonged to Beppe Fenoglio's "malora", the heirs of the boys from via Paal. They began to call each other in the last light of autumn. Are so many. They convene with whatsapp, they divide into groups and play bandits like us, 50 years ago. What tenderness! There is the Garibaldi gang, that of the King, that of Robin Hood. Suddenly I feel like I'm back on the bed of the stream where we too, wearing shorts and suspenders, designed our world and dreamed of our future. They do it almost every day, before or after homework. Like us. They run, they scream, they get angry, with the seriousness of adults. They are so innocent that watching them fly from a bank to a tree, checking their positions, deciding which exits makes one cry. A breath of fresh air for someone like me who has grinded crime news for a lifetime. How far are bullying, drugs, wickedness, the pack. May the good Lord keep them like this.

People of the world — They are the army of those who work. They get up early, sweat and run. But on the weekends, between a car ride to take the children and playing football or rhythmic dancing, they get together at home, perhaps in the garage, and party: with chestnuts, bagna cauda, leeks. A pasta and off with recyclable plastic cutlery, but it's really nice to see it. It is life that returns.

Older people — They too are back to going out. They repopulate the "universities of the third age", timidly but really revive the various "pedibuses", the bowling alleys, the acli, arci, cultural and theatrical clubs. The acting ones. They are an expression of the serenity that returns. But they do it with another spirit: that of someone who has spent three years of suspicions, fears, sick people and too many deaths. It's nice but if we believe in it we will have to do it more and more. Sobriety and simplicity are two great lessons from the pandemic which, it seems, is fading away. And here it is: the cake consumed after the meeting, the ballroom dancing, the bingo, two free chats that erase, slowly, the hours spent behind the misted glass of the windows looking at nothing. It begins again.

People of faith - We know every nuance of masses via the internet and luckily there have been. But now we can go back to church no longer disguised as paratroopers and trembling in the legs. Those who do so discover everything as a return to life as when one swims from the delta or mouth towards the source.

For all people, young, worldly, advanced in years, believers and non-believers, it is nice to have rediscovered the strength to live with the heart. Many will tell us it takes time. It is true. But we can begin: and it will be beautiful!

Gian Mario Ricciardi

ND Dicembre 2022