The real sense of being People by Sara Cirone.
If entertainment becomes a serious moment it is maybe because we live in the society of games, which is similar to the never-never land. However, today we will not forge any definition, we’ll take only a moment of reflection. We will get our inspiration from two songs and a monologue. Let’s discover together which ones.
The Stato Sociale and their song Una vita in vacanza (A life on holiday)
This song tells us about work and holidays. Apparently, two concepts in contradiction. This song tells us about the sense of practising a profession or another. This song tells us about the dream of a different world where everybody can be included and not excluded as it now happens. This song talks about a world where freedom is possible. All the considerations expressed make us reflect and bring the focus on a key-point of our society: work. In particular, we have already heard a discussion about these themes. The researcher Igor Sibaldi has talked about them, in theological terms, in the movie Un altro mondo (Another World), by Thomas Torelli. He has explained the freedom of the contemporary man, who works to find the consumer’s freedom. These same concepts, as in a game of chinese boxes, bring us back to the theory of the School of Frankfurt. These reflections are not belonging to party lines or flags. They are all shared by theology, sociology, philosophy and sustainable thinking. In fact, this song is a hymn to every person, who needs to be repositioned at the centre of the social life and work. Individual work must be part of being a person, of its own will and process of meaning-attribution. People must stop to be work-functions. Authenticity, awareness, growth. Civilization.
Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro: Non mi avete fatto niente (You have done nothing to me)
“Scambiamoci la pelle / In fondo siamo umani / Perché la nostra vita non è un punto di vista” (“Let’s exchange our own skins / after all we’re human / and our own life is not just a point of view). What can we say? We can only acknowledge this admission of authenticity and absolute truth that is, in the end, the only one that actually exists. This is a simple phrase, but with a timeless exactness. However, still today humanity has not learnt this phrase yet. Maybe, the children in every epoch have learnt it, even though they have forgotten it afterwards. Man disseminates death every day, injuring the body of Earth, everyday war kills happiness and everything that does not return to life any more: the song then goes on like this. What remains? The world that keeps on waking up every day with a child’s smile is what remains. Everything that has not hurt us simply remains and everything keeps going on. This song talks about life. It talks about life as an absolute and essential value. This song makes us think of the value of the person and the sense of civilization and incivility. In the end, this song talks about resilience. The resilience in a world that, despite everything, keeps on waking up and wearing the pure smile of a child. Life, absolute value, resilience. Civilization.
Favino and his monologue The night
If the book of Ecclesiastes affirms there is time for everything, Favino’s monologue says that this is not true. For example, there is no time to lay down our luggage and say: “We have arrived”. There is no time to lie on the grass of a lawn and look at the sky and the treetops. There is no time to come back to that garden that Hillman describes like this: “The world is like a garden as it reveals itself; it is a world of things, trees, paths, bridges; it is a world of intuitions, metaphors, teachings – that are available to every soul that passes by – they are given as simply as the reflections of water on a lake: the garden makes the inner reality of the soul more understandable and beautiful.” There is no time to finish a migrant’s travel and feel like you are finally home. There is no time to stop being like a stranger. Favino seems to talk about the phenomenon of immigration, until then we realize he is talking about us. He is talking about ourselves with our borrowed lives, our temporary accomodations, our incessant instability. Today the world is not measured upon the people, but people are measured by economy. This mechanism makes us strangers to ourselves, within our homes, within our families. We are all migrants with our luggage in our hands, waiting for a new departure without a definite destination, thus delaying day by day the real sense of being people.
That something that does not work
There is something that simply does not work: if we all agree with this, and apparently we actually do, why does not our action follow our thoughts? Why does this knot exist and does not untie? Why is any kind coherence achievable? We still have many questions, but only a few answers. Do we live in a social bubble of hypocrisy? Do we live in a global moral perbenism? We cannot know this. However, we know that the goals of the 2030 UN Agenda are far from being concretely realized. Nothing can reassure us about this fact. While our questions keep multiplying, we fortunately know we are not alone. Sometimes, the contagion is positive. Truly positive.
The sustainable thinking
Maybe if we proceed in our reflections, we need a model of concrete behaviour to translate the theory into an everyday practice of life. We need a model that we can legitimately follow and a model to light up our lives. We need a model that we can convey to and share with others without the usual fear about the transmission of knowledge, deriving from the concept of competitiveness with a Darwinian interpretation. A model of awareness, authenticity, people and civilization. A model of sustainable practices and modalities for the whole civilization.