You give light

When it is about to end, it will all make sense. The strength of true wisdom is understanding that we are all united by light, like Jessica in the movie “Winter’s Tale”. Perhaps we will only understand this when our troubles and our worries vanish before death.

 Jessica is seriously ill and no longer has anything to worry about:

“The fever…it can make a lot of things to be beautiful. Even now, I can see winter turned into light. Starting from white dance…being…crosses silver. As optical glass reflecting the light of the fire and give light. We all. The pain I..the clearer I can see. All connected by light.”.

What is illness? In the film, the one that afflicts Jessica is “consumption”, a sort of irreversible degeneration of the organs.

Metaphorically this disease could have a positive sense in our lives: disease is a different way of seeing things, breaking habits and routines, and forces us to highlight the essential and to review our priorities.

Seneca once said: We are always complaining that our days are few, and we act as if there is no end to them.

“Self-awareness” is profoundly influenced by what surrounds us, and day after day we put together our “customs”. But who are we really? What are we made of? Why has the universe endowed us with a conscience unlike other living beings? Quantum physics is about trying to give answers in a scientific manner, different religions appeal to faith, but one thing is certain: “everything is connected by light.”

There are moments where time seems to stand still and everything becomes clearer:

• when you look at your children

• when you help a friend and are happy for him

• when you tolerate a mistake

• When you choose solitude

• When you give thanks

Maybe they are just short-lasting moments, instants of “illness” that open your eyes and illuminate what is eternal and what has always been: the love for life, for yourself and for others. For now it is difficult to understand, as we are still too “healthy”, we cling to things and ideas, as if there were no other “interpretation” apart from our own.

Every time I fall into this “presumption”, I listen to a song which ends like this:

“(The stars) They were there before we started breathing, they will be there after our demise,

maybe they make our lives dance on a hanging thread

and in that all exterminated light, where each distance is lost,

looking at that huge silence, man … loses himself …”

“… and in case I don’t see ya…

good afternoon, good evening and good night!”…

(The Truman Show)

Virginio