Face to face with Silvia and Ugo

Ugo and Silvia welcome me with children, Richard of five years and Letizia of 3, in a gloomy Friday of January, in the late afternoon after kindergarten. I know Ugo of over twenty-five years, he was my best man and more than three years is suffering from ALS, which is no longer a rare disease known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Communicates through a voice synthesizer controlled by the eyes, the only part of the body is still able to move. 

Q. I ask Silvia: talk to the beginning of your relationship. 

A. We met as adults: a year of engagement, plus Ugo lived in China for work [Ugo is a mechanical engineer]. We fought a lot, from boyfriends! Luckily we got married a few months later. One day, instantly, I had a certainty that this man, since time immemorial, had been designed by God for me. There were no other persons with whom, like him, felt that it did not need to pretend. I could not let me go! It was a small great certainties of life, insights into how flames are the way to find the fire. We got married in 2005, do you remember our real wedding! Richard was born in February 2008, shortly after I look forward to Letizia whose birth is scheduled for September 2009. In June 2009, we find that Ugo is suffering from ALS. 

Q. How did it go? 

A. Ugo felt a little tired. A friend physiatrist has the foresight to tell some tests that seems advisable to make. The verdict is terrible: Ugo is suffering from ALS. The 'impact of this news was brutal. The specialist looked in the face of my husband and me, I had the belly of the seventh month of pregnancy, and told us in no uncertain terms not to make long-term plans, not to take out a mortgage in ten years. It 'was a shock and an insult. We tried to react and deal with the reality, however, unexpected and full of anguish. The aid has come from the center of Nemo, Niguarda (Milan), a specialized center for ALS, where the approach is quite different: the drastic "nothing to do" that we felt sentencing the doctor is in contrast here a simple and concrete "see what we can do." We were next to help us understand what is the best way to deal with the situation. Unfortunately, with Ugo ALS immediately showed a voracious beast. In early September, when Letizia was born, Ugo already struggling to stand up. We begin terrible months, in which, with frightening speed, Ugo seems to give ground to the disease in a retreat without respite in a few months in a wheelchair. In February 2010, after a lengthy stay at Nemo, Ugo no longer moves his arms. 

Q. How did you go on? 

A. When Ugo comes from Nemo, in February, began a movement of solidarity and friendship which soon assumes proportions not provided. Our friends, especially those of the movement Communion and Liberation are organized in shifts, every night there's at least two, with dinner ready and the sleeves rolled up. Of course, this situation has some difficult aspects: it means that the home ceases to be home, and must be open to a coming and going of generosity and friendship that has beautiful aspects but requires acceptance and welcome. Makes a great attention to our situation, and yet, paradoxically, many of the people who come here say they do so because they feel helped by us. It is to help, but often the motive is stronger, and resides in that we all need to be helped. This was miraculous. We do not do anything, do not want to teach anything to anyone, but when someone comes here and tells us to get better himself, and there are several people who want to be able to come and help us. Do you think you are in the parish shifts because every day there is someone who recites the rosary for Ugo. We thus know that someone dedicates time daily prayers and especially for us. Others have organized pilgrimages to the tomb of Don Giussani, which has been recently opened the beatification cause, ask for the grace of healing. A pray for us there are friendly people, but also many unknown: even a cloistered monastery in Armenia, to which a friend told our situation. The power of prayer is real. For us, especially for me, it's like having a close person. It is difficult to explain, if you do not have experience: they are not empty words, that come to naught, but it is a very real and substantial aid. Spiritual help, then joins the practical help. We have people who come here and lend a hand in everything. When I need something, pick up the phone and I always find a greater response than expected. 

Q. How have you changed in recent months? 

A. I learned, first of all, to love my husband as I never imagined and hoped. I love him and remarry immediately, in a situation where it is located. I understand that a person is not what can or can not do: its value lies elsewhere. And then I learned to ask for help, friendship, support and companionship. Too often we try to do everything by themselves, arrogating the right to do it to ourselves. Instead we are creatures dependent, and Ugo shows a striking. He objectively depends on the other in anything from smaller, like scratching his forehead, right down to basics like eating or even breathing. Yet he shows, so extreme, that each of us is. I myself have learned to ask for help, because objectively I can not do: it is a situation bigger than all of us. You get to see that man is made to be with others in a community setting. I am convinced that those who die of despair on the one hand not to have realized that every difficulty holds good possibilities for people who live there and the other has closed in on itself, remaining alone and so condemned to anguish. The presence of others is a huge help: someone who comes and asks how you are, how you doing, if you need something, and not only asks for formality, but because he truly cares about you. This gives you an infinite breath, gives you the opportunity to start again, to look at those around you and that you love in a new way every day. And what is more necessary than ever, as each day is marked by fatigue. Since awakening, Ugo has breathing problems because of secretions that accumulate in the cannula during sleep. Then you have to move for personal hygiene. Too often approaches to people with such difficulties as if they were first of all ill. Instead, Ugo first of all is my husband, and a man who needs to take a shower like everyone else. And, like everyone else, Ugo take a shower every morning. Sure, it's an effort, first of all for him, because we want to move a lift ... Yet all that keeps you on your dignity. We had suggested a motorized bed, such as hospitals, from the first admission. However, we have chosen to sleep together again today, in the "Latvian", as any married couple. We want to maintain a family atmosphere for all purposes for our children. Ugo is the father of her children: a father with problems, a sick father, but always dad. And the whole family live the faith and the hope of healing. Children are wondering when the father can heal, as if he had a cold. None of us lives in a perspective of negativity without hope very much believe in miracles. It could be something striking: close the door, go in the other room and I find my husband standing healed. And this could be! Or, another miracle would be that he was a curative therapy for ALS, and this is the miracle that my husband asks God, because it would not only healing for him. And I believe that only those who suffer as an ALS sufferer can understand what it means to ask the same salvation for some other patient who do not even know. 

Q. I understand that you and Ugo hold a course for engaged couples, is not it? 

A: Silvia smiles: I believe I have "stretched" the boys who have come here! I told them plainly that in life you never know what will happen, and you have to consciously face the decisive step of life, that of marriage, knowing that it can also happen a situation like ours. Of course, when you do the marriage vows, "in sickness and in health", you always hope that the disease does not happen. Yet there promises to be next to each other even in sorrow, it can also be the pain of betrayal, but also to see that we have betrayed the idea of ​​the other. I, Silvia, I had the grace, the wedding day, to hear this very clearly: I made those promises with consciousness, that day, "I was there" with the head and heart and I was overwhelmed by emotion. I took charge of this mission, because marriage is a mission, like going to Africa and helping people to convert. Marriage is not only the means of "that day", but yes a renewed every day and every night, when we will not go to sleep with resentment and anger in their hearts, because the moment of darkness of the night does not extend to all life. Although falling in love passes, constantly reaffirms the significance dell'accompagnarsi each other to their fate: to become more real every day, reaching the truth about themselves. Looking back on these years of hard work, who I would not be justified if I dropped everything? What keeps me tied to a family situation like this, where, in addition to Ugo, the kids I require a great deal? The yes my wedding is not a yes only me, but is accompanied by the presence of an Other. It is thanks to him that I can now watch my husband with a tenderness and a love more powerful than those of the wedding day, it is thanks to him that my husband, in turn, want me so well. "I need you," she says, and it is not only a need for things to do ... As a husband has the freedom to tell his wife something like that? Our relationship is true because it's very free. We look for what we are, and this is a difficult goal. We feel "blessed" because to us, however, this disease has brought so much grace. Our promises were spoken in front of an Other who lives with us, and whose presence and closeness is what keeps us together and helps us to have mercy on our limits: those of the other, but also their own. Sometimes, unknowingly, I happen to hurt Ugo: and there, first of all, to myself that I have to ask for forgiveness, admitting to be limited and they can not do everything well. Loving each other means not from his own limitations, but by the presence of the other. Also because it was not easy to live with Ugo in any case: it's a terrible big head! (And this is true, I can subscribe too!) 

Thank you Silvia and thanks Ugo for your testimony.

Turnout !

Matter of a few more days and then the lists of candidates for the next Parliament will be ready. There will, as always, new names and usual characters.

The problems that the newly elected members will now have to face will surely have an economic boost growth, keep public finances in order, promote the recovery of employment.


The different recipes to address these enormous problems we know all good or bad, it goes by the proposed Vendola the recipe through Grillo Berlusconi, Bersani, Monti Casini ending with Tremonti.

Instead, what I'd like to know from the parliamentary candidates of different parties is what they think about some "issues" if we are not so hot, but indicative of the vision of life that the subjects in question. Knowing their thoughts, sincere, on these issues could help us to choose the candidate that best reflects our values ​​and our vision of life and perhaps allow us ultimately to obtain a parliament composed of people more like us, a Parliament more human.


Here are the ten questions that I would like each candidate to Parliament felt morally eager to answer:

one: what does it mean for you the word happiness?

two: when human life begins: the moment of conception or the moment of separation of the child from the mother?


three: think school in Italy needs more public subsidies or greater freedom and autonomy?

four: fewer children are born in Italy, how do you actually help young families, especially the young mothers to combine work and care of children?

five: Italy is a country where the territory is not cared enough and indeed is marred by speculation of all kinds. On the other hand are designed in recent years works great, I think of the TAV, the bridge over the Straits of Messina, which cost billions of euro and that many citizens do not seem so urgent and necessary. What do you think about?


six: in your opinion what kind of Europe we have built so far, and most importantly, there is no need to change anything in Europe today?

We come now to some questions on topics cheaper:

seven: Considers that in Italy there is a problem of redistribution of wealth? If you, as it would face?

eight: the Constitution states: Italy is a democratic republic founded on work. Specifically, it tells us a proposal feasible now to increase employment?


nine: spending review and health, tells us how to imagine our national health care system at the end of his term, in five years?

ten: slow justice and prisons overflowing with prisoners. It tells us a concrete proposal to speed up the first and actually make rehabilitative punishment of the offender?


The answers to these questions (not at all exhaustive of the topics that may still affect) would come out Italy's image and future of our "candidate".

Then it's up to us to judge and vote.

Said Charles De Gaulle: as a politician never believes in what he says, when taken literally is always very surprised.

Let us, fellow voters, this time to choose well our candidate not to be in five years, yet we to be surprised at who we elected.

Majority, morality and mathematics

On November 6, Obama was elected President of the United States. American voters have obviously chosen political continuity at a difficult time in the American economy than the "new" represented by the challenger Romney. We are not interested to open a debate on this election, there will be time to see how the re-elected President will play his second and last term.

What I would like to focus here on some of the 174 referenda that have affected American voters to vote for the new president. Among the questions approved by a majority of voters, some have focused on the liberalization of marijuana for a use specified in nicely "recreational" (in Colorado and Washington state). In Maryland, however, 52% of voters in favor of unions between persons of the same sex by legalizing same-sex marriage in Maine and Minnesota referendums were only advisory, but they were always won by the pro-legalization.

Now, the fact that the majority of voters in those states chose to legalize marijuana and marriage between persons of the same sex does not mean that these choices are to be accepted and morally automatically shared. A numerical majority, a major proportion can not eliminate the fact that a behavior is right or wrong, both for nature and the truth of both his person or harm.

Smoking a marijuana cigarette is clear that it does not kill instantly, but the continuous use of the substance as well as creating a chronic situation of detachment from reality, addictive and permanent brain damage. This is what now recognized by the scientific community. Of course, smoking cigarettes in the long run can cause lung cancer or exaggerate to drink wine or alcohol can eventually destroy the liver. However, the total damage caused by soft drugs are more and create more addictive than a cigarette or a glass of wine, even if the majority of voters of a State may think differently.

With regard to marriages between persons of the same sex, is not at issue here absolutely respect and absolute maximum that should be afforded to every human being from the moment of conception until that of his death. The fact of the matter is, I believe in the words "marriage" and "same sex". Marriage (the word comes from Latin and means parent action, an act that gives life) was born, has its reason for being, as a union between two people of different sexes are combined with the prospect of living together giving rise to an open family the possibility of creating a new life.

Blessed John Paul II in his wonderful book of notes He created man and woman who collects catechesis on human held by the Pope in the Wednesday audiences, he recalls, citing the Gospel, at the beginning of the work: "And he said, : have ye not read that the Creator from the beginning made them male and female and said, for this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife and they become one flesh "(Mt, 19 et seq.) Besides being different in sex, male and female, is the indispensable condition for generating and welcome a new life. Two persons of the same sex will never generate a new life. That's why it is quite clear, in my opinion, that there can never be a marriage between two persons of the same sex, marriage understood as being between two people of different sexes potentially open to create a new life. Moreover, even in the animal world it seems that couples are formed to reproduce the species, according to the natural instinct, are made up of one male and one female.

This does not mean that two people of the same sex can not freely choose to share and spend their lives together, under one roof. But this union, by whatever name it may be defined, is certainly not a marriage bed, even if a hundred referendum in a hundred different States should give the majority to those who say the opposite.

Mathematics, in this case, it is only the opinion of the majority.

The alternative

The recent scandals have involved the management of public money given to councilors and regional councilors reported in vogue theme federalist system of Italy. Over the past twenty years, the regions have gradually acquired a greater say in the management of some major items of expenditure, including all the most important health concerns, with mixed success. Against regions C.D. virtuous, there have been other less virtuous or guilty disastrous. The cases of bad public health and waste are visible to all and there is no need here to remember them. And we do not care to emphasize the differential north-south, so that in the south there are public facilities that work well and deliver quality services and cost comparable to northern Italy. The real question is' other, but with a centralized management, unique, super ministries from Romans, we are confident that things would be better, there would be less waste, less downtime, better quality services at lower costs?

Personally, I have doubts.

In Germany, the federal system is applied as and perhaps more than in Italy, and the result is a very satisfactory quality of life for the citizens who see public services provided operating at a sustainable cost. Where is the difference? The difference is in the list compiled annually since 1993 by the non-governmental organization Transparency International, which analyzes and studies the levels of corruption in the world. Well, in 2011 (the last year analyzed) the level of corruption "perceived" (suffered) by German citizens puts Germany in 14th place in the standings on a par with Japan ahead of the United Kingdom, the United States and France to name other G8 Nations , as he sees Italy in 69th place tied with Ghana, Macedonia and Samoa. The first three countries "not corrupt" in the world? New Zealand, Denmark and Finland. For those interested to know more, below the link to the website of the organization: http://www.transparency.org/

The real problem is not a setting in the country that we want to give to our country, centralist or federalist, the real problem is ethical and moral. Ethics must relate to the behavior of public administrators of public affairs at any level they operate. Personal morality should ensure that a person who manages public money deems just resign from 'job before it is the law itself to impose it if it is under investigation by the judiciary for offenses relating to public office covering, even if waiting for a judgment rendered by a court in the name of the Italian people. Now here would open all the major theme of slowness of our "justice model", certainly essential, but not the time to deepen it.

In this sense, the "anti corruption" under discussion in Parliament is certainly necessary and welcome, but it alone will not be able to eradicate the problem unless it is accompanied by a change that needs to be cultural, social, personal. So I think the fundamental starting from schools, to educate young people to see the commitment in politics, in society, in the community as the best service that a person can offer their country and not, as often happens now, and as a way a quick and easy way to reach positions of privilege, power and personal enrichment. From this point of view, so mistreated hours of religion and civics certainly offer a space of time in the classroom can help children deal with proposals and positive content. It should also be teaching young people the rules of conduct of a modern and civilized nation, but also give reasons why it is right or wrong behavior or a certain lifestyle. Without a vanishing point to which to refer in their political values​​, the general picture is fuzzy and the instinct prevails (staff or your group / party) and the satisfaction of particular interest only at the expense of the public.

Indro Montanelli wrote that corruption starts with a plate of pasta. Maybe we should start thinking of a diet ..

Translation of the post July, 31

If you embrace not be afraid

I like the theory of Barnard, the family doctor, with which the author begins the diary of Franco and Andrea: "Works that life is all under a large bell-shaped curve, with a central common ailments and eccentricities sides of all kinds. Life is too diluted in the middle and thick at the sides. "This book tells the density of the lives of Andrea, age three autistic boy and his father Franco who in 2010 partly with Andrea for a seemingly aimless journey that takes them to cross the two American continents. From the story of those days, the author, Fulvio Ervas wrote: "If you embrace not be afraid."

It 'a book that lays bare your being reader - viewers are thinking, reading Andrea and Franco, fortunately my kids are not born with autism. But reading it, I'm thinking that maybe I missed something. Not the fact that I personally have never done an adventure like that who lived Andrea and Franco. And 'that perhaps the relationship with my children never reached a level of mutual listening, relational density as what I perceive as existing between Franco and Andrea.

Certainly it is not always easy to keep, for life, this attention. It 'a superhuman work that goes beyond the physical forces at the disposal of a man and a woman, a father and a mother. In the diary dad Franco at one point says it clearly: "I curse, but I love it. I do not know what this love is made. I believe that no parent can easily answer this question. "An autistic child, in this sense, is a great opportunity to go to the source of this love. Of course, if possible, a parent would have preferred another occasion, but here we return to the theory of Barnard, the density etc.. etc..

Since I finished reading the book I think of Andrea and his dad Franco as fellow travelers in this life and I see them together from the strap of love that every day you tend to max, but it never breaks. As I often think of my friend Ugo and his family, his wife Silvia and his two sons Riccardo of 5 and 3 years of Letizia. Ugo lives in the company three years of ALS and speaks to me a year just by moving your eyes on the screen of a computer that then translates metallic voice his thoughts. The rest of Ugo's body was motionless on a wheelchair. Yes, definitely the life of Ugo is very dense ... yet when I visit him and ask how you are, he replies: "apart from the SLA, all right!"

You do not know why the SLA as the causes of autism, but then how many things you do not know why yet happen? It 's life that makes it happen, but not randomly. There is always a reason why things happen. One must live the daily life of every day asking to always have a traveling companion who makes you company and help you understand these reasons. Franco guess maybe at some point in their walk this factor and in fact admits: "trying to bring Andrea into my world, maybe they only managed to take a small step in his ..."

As written by S. Paul in First Corinthians, God never sends trials (temptations for St. Paul) that we are not able to bear. We are never left alone, just look around, just take back memories of Franco and Andrea. Recommend it to everyone reading this book, from fifteen to one hundred years, it is never too late to read these pages and try to learn to love each other, and different from you, your son.

Fulvio Ervas, If you embrace not be afraid, Marcos Y Marcos 2012, Ozanam Street, 8 Milan

Translation of the post July, 8

Students who graduated in 2012...

The lucky ones have already done, for others a few days to a final "insane" review (which is not much) and then they too will be on vacation. And then, dear children, for those of you decided to continue studying, you are in college. The newspapers and news magazines, like every year, we will explain in detail all the infinite possibilities that offer the best Italian and foreign universities emphasizing teachers who teach you and to the possibilities of bright careers that can offer those who can to graduate. The information guru will tell you what are the courses that offer the best opportunity to get a job with a rapid career opportunities and so on.

Two thoughts I would like to convey about that, but first an introduction. I graduated in 1985 (scientific degree) and the choice of degree course has been very tiring for me and for many months as my head was wrapped in a thick fog that does not even let in a ray of sunshine. In the end I chose and now to 46 years (few days) and 21 years after graduation, I can tell you that if I could go back, not the choice I would do it.

So I would leave these two thoughts: the first one. Choosing what to study at university is really your first choice as an adult. It involves the decision to dedicate at least 4/5/6 years of intense study in a field of knowledge that draws you, that excites you and that you wish to explore and learn more. This same industry a future not so far away, most likely, we will involve young people as workers and then the die is cast. The work is the human activity through which your being men and women will emerge and grow. Perform an activity that there is a conviction can be worst than can happen to an offender who receives a just sentence for crimes committed by the Court. Do not subscribe to medicine just because your father is a doctor and invites you to follow in his footsteps, do not enroll in law just because your father is a lawyer and holds a law firm, do not choose economics just because your mother is a chartered accountant and has an important study ... Choosing a university is a vocational choice. If you really want to work to heal the sick, just go to Medicine, otherwise forget it. Maybe thanks to the knowledge of your family would you be able to overcome even the entrance test with ease, but never will pass, even twenty or thirty years, the test of your inner happiness for a study that has been imposed. Follow the choice that you called the heart. If your teachers are real teachers, the school years should be served to reveal your attitudes and your real interests. Follow them, give them confidence, give yourself confidence. When you force the reality, take place only for damages. This is true in all fields, both when speaking of Nature, is at stake when there are personal choices. Have the courage to want good and support your choice and you will see that your parents, who love you, you will support. Only after selecting the option, you can think about which university to attend considering all the personal factors involved.

Second, the coming years will be unique and unrepeatable for each of you. Take the opportunity to deepen even more than the study of English, now in place universal language of Esperanto, as well as another foreign language, if you can. Your future will most likely have a more international future than they have had your parents and English is the language spoken throughout the world. Take advantage of the opportunities offered by the university to travel and take exams in foreign universities. So the invitation is studied and know the world around you. You will be the future leaders of a country that now he is sick, suffers not so much an economic crisis but a crisis of identity, a crisis of values​​. To cure that serve young people are happy with the work they do, each in its field, well motivated and willing. But to be well motivated and willing in their work, you must love him. Today just love the work they do and this is also, in my opinion, one of the causes of the crisis we are experiencing. But I will not ramble over ...

I greet you with a suggestion. If you have not already seen, look for the film by Peter Weir's Dead Poets Society. This film was the blockbuster season 1989/1990 and won the Oscar for the screenplay by Tom Schulman. Look and meditate.

Congratulations guys!

Translation of the post of May, 27

VII World Meeting of Families


In preparation for the VII World Meeting of Families to be held in Milan from May 28, 2012 and will end with the Pope's meeting in Bresso Sunday, June 3, we propose an extract of the discourse of His Holiness Benedict XVI at the opening of the Conference of the Church diocese of Rome on FAMILY AND CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES held at the Basilica of St. John Lateran Monday, June 6, 2005. Here is a step in the Pope's speech:

"The anthropological foundation of the family

Marriage and the family are not in fact a chance sociological construction, the product of particular historical and financial situations. On the other hand, the question of the right relationship between the man and the woman is rooted in the essential core of the human being and it is only by starting from here that its response can be found.

In other words, it cannot be separated from the ancient but ever new human question: Who am I? What is a human being? And this question, in turn, cannot be separated from the question about God: Does God exist? Who is God? What is his face truly like?

The Bible gives one consequential answer to these two queries: the human being is created in the image of God, and God himself is love. It is therefore the vocation to love that makes the human person an authentic image of God: man and woman come to resemble God to the extent that they become loving people.

This fundamental connection between God and the person gives rise to another: the indissoluble connection between spirit and body: in fact, the human being is a soul that finds expression in a body and a body that is enlivened by an immortal spirit.

The body, therefore, both male and female, also has, as it were, a theological character: it is not merely a body; and what is biological in the human being is not merely biological but is the expression and the fulfilment of our humanity.

Likewise, human sexuality is not juxtaposed to our being as person but part of it. Only when sexuality is integrated within the person does it successfully acquire meaning.

Thus, these two links, between the human being with God and in the human being, of the body with the spirit, give rise to a third: the connection between the person and the institution.

Indeed, the totality of the person includes the dimension of time, and the person's "yes" is a step beyond the present moment: in its wholeness, the "yes" means "always", it creates the space for faithfulness. Only in this space can faith develop, which provides a future and enables children, the fruit of love, to believe in human beings and in their future in difficult times.

The freedom of the "yes", therefore, reveals itself to be freedom capable of assuming what is definitive: the greatest expression of freedom is not the search for pleasure without ever coming to a real decision; this apparent, permanent openness seems to be the realization of freedom, but it is not true. The true expression of freedom is the capacity to choose a definitive gift in which freedom, in being given, is fully rediscovered.

In practice, the personal and reciprocal "yes" of the man and the woman makes room for the future, for the authentic humanity of each of them. At the same time, it is an assent to the gift of a new life.

Therefore, this personal "yes" must also be a publicly responsible "yes", with which the spouses take on the public responsibility of fidelity, also guaranteeing the future of the community. None of us, in fact, belongs exclusively to himself or herself: one and all are therefore called to take on in their inmost depths their own public responsibility.

Marriage as an institution is thus not an undue interference of society or of authority. The external imposition of form on the most private reality of life is instead an intrinsic requirement of the covenant of conjugal love and of the depths of the human person.

Today, the various forms of the erosion of marriage, such as free unions and "trial marriage", and even pseudo-marriages between people of the same sex, are instead an expression of anarchic freedom that are wrongly made to pass as true human liberation. This pseudo-freedom is based on a trivialization of the body, which inevitably entails the trivialization of the person. Its premise is that the human being can do to himself or herself whatever he or she likes: thus, the body becomes a secondary thing that can be manipulated, from the human point of view, and used as one likes. Licentiousness, which passes for the discovery of the body and its value, is actually a dualism that makes the body despicable, placing it, so to speak, outside the person's authentic being and dignity."

Translation of the post of May, 15

Storytelling: the path of humanization

I just finished reading an interesting essay by Massimo Diana entitled "Narrare - perchè e come raccontare le storie ai bambini".

The book contains the articles that appeared in the last three school years 2008/2009/2010 and 2011 in the journal The time religion.

The result was a work very interesting for us as parents, to teachers, but also for those who want to deepen existing ties and connections between telling a story, a fable and the human being, adult or child.

The author writes at the beginning of the book: "We can, in general, include all the stories and narratives of humanity as simultaneously a way to God, the afterlife, the world of sense and meaning, the Absolute , but also a path to his own humanity: narratives are paths of humanization. They teach that change is possible, that men and women become the best you can and will be affordable to one and all. "

But what they talk about the stories? What are the eternal and universal problems that all of us, men or women, sooner or later we meet in our lifetime? Two are by the author, in the final analysis, the topics covered in the narratives: learning to love and be prepared to die. Since the volume of this central topic delves into the cultural implications, providing acute psychological and historical reflections and different points of view that educate us to open our eyes to new thoughts. There are several examples taken from the Bible, from literature, cinema and from ancient myths to better describe the concepts.

Besides the title, the book is intended for all educators, professionals and vocation. What does it mean to educate, then, would the end of the work the author? Diana's answer: "it means helping to imagine otherwise. This is the great nobility and human dignity: it is always possible in any situation, to imagine otherwise, that is, seeing things from another perspective and gain a new view of reality. "It is certainly not, to my way of seeing things, a comprehensive definition of the term education, but it is a good starting point for all.

For those wishing to read the work (reading that Board):
Massimo Diana, ",Narrare - perchè e come raccontare le storie ai bambini" publisher Elledici, Turin 2011

Translation of the post of April, 28

Recommendations of my son

Adapted from "The King's Business Magazine" published by the Institute of Biblical Los Angeles


• Do not spoil me: I know I should not have anything you ask. I just want to test you.
• Do not be afraid to be stern with me, I prefer it. This allows me to know what they are valid.
• Do not use force with me: this teaches me that power is all that matters. I will be more willing to be guided.
• Do not be inconsistent: this confuses me. He forces me to make every effort to get away whenever I can.
• Do not make promises you may not be able to maintain: it would decrease my confidence in you.
• Do not give in to my provocations when I say and do things just to embarrassed, because they would try to have other similar victories.
• Do not be too upset when I say: "I hate you" does not mean that. I do it because you are sad for what I've done.
• Do not make me feel smaller than it is: rimedierei and acted bigger than it is.
• Do not do things for me that I can do alone: ​​this makes me feel like a kid and I could continue to keep you in my service.
• Do not let my "bad habits" get me a good deal of your attention: what encourages me to continue with those.
• Do not correct me in front of people: I will pay much more attention if you talk quietly with me in private.
• Do not try to discuss my behavior in the heat of an argument: of course my hearing is not very good at that time and my cooperation is even worse.
• Do not try to lecture me: would you be surprised to see how well I know what is right and wrong.
• Do not make me feel that my mistakes are sins: I have to learn to make mistakes without feeling of not being honest.
• Do not grumble again: if you do I will defend myself by pretending to be deaf.
• Do not demand explanations for my wrong behavior: I really do not know why I did it.
• Do not put too much strain on my sincerity: I am easily intimidated enough to tell lies.
• Do not forget that I love to experiment: I learn from this so please bear.
• Do not protect me from consequences: I need to learn from experience.
• Not paying much attention to my small ailments: I could learn to enjoy poor health for your attention.
• Do not shut me up when I'm honest questions: I would stop and try to seek my information elsewhere. Do not answer questions without feeling silly: I would just keep you busy with me.
• Do not ever think to look ridiculous if you apologize to me, excuse me feel surprisingly warm with you.
• Never carry to be perfect and infallible: it gives me an excuse to not follow you.
• Do not worry about the little time we spend together is "how" we spend that matters.
• Do not let my fears arouse your anxiety: I would become more fearful. Show me the courage.
• Do not forget that I can not thrive without understanding and encouragement, but I need not tell you, right?
• Remember: I learn more by example than by a reprimand.

Translation of the post of March 18

The school at the time of 'iPhone

The second work of Professor Giuseppe Pelosi is titled "Kuore, the school at the time of the iPhone."The theme is clear from the start: to school today need to put your heart. But who should make the heart? Teachers? Students? And parents, the family are implicated in this report teacher - student?

All these questions are analyzed in the book that will appeal to parents concerned (almost all those who have a child aged between 0.1 and 17.9 years), teachers (because it speaks of today's schools, but also of what could be tomorrow) and in my opinion could be read by high school students in possession of sufficient maturity to understand and contribute right away, to change the world of instruction today.

There are numerous considerations that Prof. Pelosi gives us in this work, all interesting. The basic theme is the school today with appurtenances (teachers, students, family). The public awareness of the Italian school is not at the highest levels, but reading this book a seed of hope springs up in us. We hope that from this seed to grow a young seedling, which then, in time, arrivals also offer edible fruits (maybe even sweet and savory which is not bad ...)

Carry a quote from the last pages of the book: "... a school is an expression of society that generates it and the culture that wants to transmit." This statement, so real that it seems obvious, is not at all understood by the public who judges negatively Italian school, which is made from Italian teachers, parents, Italian, Italian students. In essence we want the school and that we deserve, as we have politicians that we choose and to vote ... Perhaps it is time that those who make the school (teachers, parents, pupils) incominciasse think the school of tomorrow, which starts now. With the help of teachers, like Professor Pelosi, who live in school there more of us who works only do the parents ...