Monday, May 30

A New Day Has Come?

A famous Italian philosopher from the 17th century, Giambattista Basile , once wrote that history is like the wheal - what goes around comes around, cyclically, and if only human kind were cleaver enough to acknowledge this we would live in a perfect society. Nevertheless, his words imply that people are not smart and that we are bound, collectively, never to learn from our mistakes. Many a time my nation and my hometown, Napoli, have gone through some radical governmental changes which have brought about new waves of expectation and enthusiasm - with some, short-lived results. Today is a new dawn for Napoli. In "the city that does not sleep because it's too busy stealing", where the official government is only second to that of the mafia a new major has just been elected by 65,7% of Neapolitans - a young, determined ex judge who has infused this almost dead, semi-comatose, city a newly found sense of hope.
Has a new day come? I pray it has - and if it really has, I pray even harder we will have learnt at least something from our mistakes of old and make change a long lasting occurrence.

Wednesday, May 18

Growing "Big"

Every phase in life has its choices and its challenges. At 5 months we switch from an exclusively liquid diet to processed solid food - it involves painful teething and a lot of mess!
At 5 years of age we move from the playground of nursery to a big classroom with big chairs and big lonely desks with our minds filled of numbers, letters and increasingly more difficoult information..and it so goes on for the rest of our natural lives. Change is imminent and inevitable. It makes us grow not necessarily "big" or "old" but become better, more equipped and skilled people - with no need for losing our child-like enthusiasm and excitement for life.

[letter to a scared wee potato head!]