We still keep in our eyes the pictures of Amatrice, grouded by the tremendous earthquake of Aug 24th 2016. The quake has wounded a land rich in history, culture, beauty and carry with them a feeling of irretrievable injustice. The pictures of a barren city centre will remain ever long in the collective memory of our country. An earthquake cannot but unleash broader questions around the meaning of life, and what make a man a rock-steady being, even when everything around him is shaking. The earth is an emblem of security, and when all around us falls down, all seems lost. An earthquake, such as the economic crisis, opens the earth below our feet and when everything seems to be going down, what remains is the sole big resource: the person.
What we do is consistent with what we are
The person, in its being, is capable to re-start afresh: Agere sequitur esse, affirmed St. Thomas, “what we do is a consequence of what we are”. We are all gathered together in the great adventure of life, we are interconnected in the construction of the human abode, each one of us is called to give his own contribution to the common wealth.
“Training the Amatriciana way” Forum
Such are the reasons at the basis of the Forum “Training the Amatriciana way”, from an idea of Sergio Gaglianese, in its fourth edition it aims to add on to the factors of interest towards the hamlet torn apart by the earthquake the cultural aspect, a real added value for the territory.
The book
The stories accounted during the forums have become a book: #ManteniamociForte (Giacovelli Editore), curated by Giulia Reina, whose proceedings will be entirely destined to the reconstruction of the library in Amatrice. The book will be presented on Saturday September 22nd at 9.00 p.m. at the National Museum in Ravenna. Like a coffin, the book is an anthology of 58 contributions ranging from the world of marketing, training, startups, to the digital work and economics. It tells the stories of people confronted with the earthquake, stories of re-birth: a genuine fresco of resilience.
Towards the path of civilization
One can be happy with the rhetoric of Italian industriousness, the boldness of a central-Italian population that has always had to come to terms with the asperities of its land, yet, the real novelty is generated by those people who put their focus on sharing change, on their capability to resist and react to disheartening events with the firm intent to contribute to the community.
We end up feeling all more intertwined and vital along the path of civilization, thanks to the contagion of those who are re-born, those who have found again new impetus and the capability to start afresh and reinvent themselves.