Nice things can happen. At least here they can. If I repeat myself, then so be it: The little town in which I live  seems to resemble an adult Italian version of Sesame Street. Three Stories of nice things:

1) Frequently my wife and I take a walk in the country side. About a half mile out of our Piazza we pass a small apartment building in which there lives a one eyed dog by the name of India. She barks “Hello” to us as we pass by. We wave back. One day, she barked, we waved, and then about ten minutes later the rains started to come down. Upon our hasted return, a man we did not know, came out of India’s apartment with an umbrella for us to continue our walk. India barked “Hello” again

2) A while ago I had fallen and was in some discomfort when I walked. I was in need of a cane; but there were no canes in the local stores. Suddenly, in our Piazza there was a man who I had noticed before, walking with a limp – and a cane. I asked him in my best/worst Italian where he got that cane. He told meet to wait a minute. He got on his phone. I thought he was looking for some translator program on his device….in 5 minutes his wife drove up   and handed me a cane out her car window. Go figure.

3) The other day as I was walking home from the grocery store, I got a tap on the back of my shoulder. I remember being slightly irritated because the sidewalks are narrow here and I assumed somebody was tapping me so they could hurry by. No. It was a mother and daughter who had noticed a Fifty Euro piece (Circa $55) had fallen out of my back pocket – and they were returning it to me….

2 quotes:

• “Do unto others as you wish others do unto you.” -Confucius”
• “Do unto others, before they do unto you” -Attributed:  -“Project 2025”

 

The little town in which I live is celebrating the “Slow Food”  movement (Cittaslow”) this weekend. The movement began in 1986 as a protest against McDonalds opening a unit near the Spanish Steps in Rome. Today, there are chapters in 150 countries and over 300  Cittaslow organizations in small towns in Italy. “Slow” does not refer to service…it refers to a lifestyle of: Relaxed, Natural, Healthful and Taste. You won’t find ‘Processed Foods’ on the Cittaslow menu. Since its inception the Movement has strayed, (as Movements will) into such aberrations as trying to save the bees and the farmers and things like that. I imagine the Big Ag people in the U.S. would accuse this group of being members of: Antifa, (Question:where is Antifa? Who is its head? etc?), or Commies, or Woke Nut Jobs.) But I see a lot of Americans down there in my Piazza today, enjoying themselves with all the Nut Jobs and Woke food eaters. I know the ones who are American because they are eating the Slow Food as fast as they can. Probably 50.4 % of them are MAGAs and they don’t even know what they are eating.

Some Quores:

• “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.”-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, French Lawyer, -1826
• “Der Mensch ist, was er ißt.” -[“Man is what he eats”] Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach -1863
• “You are what you eat”. -Victor Lindlahr, American nutritionist, 1942
• “Never eat more than you can lift.” -Miss Piggy
• “Spaghetti can be eaten most successfully if you inhale it like a vacuum cleaner.” -Sophia Loren
• “If I’m going to eat fast food, I’m going to McDonald’s. I don’t need to pretend.” -Chrissy Teige
• “Food is an important part of a balanced diet.” -Fran Lebowitz“
•   “You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans.” -Ronald Reagan (I wonder how DJT eats his jellybeans…I really don’t want to know.)

 

 

We have a walkway underneath the porticos in our little town’s piazza. Several days a month it gets filled up with pedestrians: Locals, Tourists, X-pats and more. It’s not the Champs Elysee, it’s more like a river of humanity that passes by. (Speaking about rivers: General Xiang, the Asian thinker, once said: “If you sit by the river long enough – you will see all your enemies float by.” But Father John said:”If you choose to go down the river, you might meet a new friend there.”) Either way, it is a great pastime here to watch the people drifting by: French, Germans, Brits, Americans, Canadians, Africans, Israelis, young, old, well dressed, some looking like they fell out of bed, some with tattoos, rings in noses, some are fashionistas, some looking like the villains in recent movies, other like the heroes, many on their phones, many taking pictures,  Every one of all of them seem to have come in peace and with good intentions. I watch them many days a week and I wonder why it can’t be like this all over the world, all the time. It seems as if everybody here has forgotten about what is going on in the world today. Is it so hard to build a little cobble-stoned piazza’d town and a have a gentle good time of it all? I guess it is.

Some quotes:

“Once a year, go somewhere you have never been before.” –Dalai Lama

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” –Mark Twain

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
― Lao Tzu

 

 

Mr. Stevens, my algebra teacher in the 7th grade, heard Davey Sargent laughing in the back of the classroom. He put down his chalk and told us there was too much laughter in the room and in the world. He said laughter was for people who thought: 1) it was funny when people slipped on banana peels, (Sadistic) 2) People who were surprised at something and reacted with a laugh (Ignorance). … and 3) I forget the third. I did not do well in Algebra, either. But I have held laughter in low regard for many years. Then I came to Tuscany. The people here laugh a lot – and I see no banana peels and I sense little ignorance. Early, every morning, I hear men laughing loudly as they finish their morning coffee at the Cafe across the Piazza. So loud you cannot sleep. The Street Sweeper, the Accountant, the Plumber, the Construction Worker, the Dental Lab Tech,…many, many men laughing at something, sometimes slapping each other on the back…I don’t know what the joke is because I am only at Level One with the language…but I understand laughter, and I know the men are having a good time of it as they go off to work. I loved living in NYC for thirty-three years; but I don’t remember me, or my pals, laughing as we went off to do our daily scrimmages. It’s not just the men, I hear women laughing, too. Generally, they are not as loud as the men; as it should be.

I do remember Mr. Stevens weeping at his desk while he graded one of my algebra homework papers. Come to think of it, I think there is too much weeping going on in this world, what with: 1) ICE prison camps (Sadistic) and 2) Epic Fury/Hormuz closings (Ignorance). Oh, I just remembered the third reason people laugh is over something Vulgar. Some people think dirty jokes and course rude comments are funny.

I do not know if they teach algebra anymore, maybe there is no need for it what with AI and all….if Mr. Stevens were around today, I think he might be happier in this land of laughter

At one end of our Piazza there is a church – La Santa Croce.  At the other end is the ‘Commune’  (The government building)  The church is about 200 years old.  The locals tend not to get married in the church nowadays – they go to the ‘Commune’ instead.  However Baptisms, Confirmations and Funeral proceedings still win the day in the Santa Croce.  I don’t know how the locals behave with the Friday meat question, or the Confessional thing and “sins below the belt” in these times.  My Italian is not good enough to understand their answers, if I were to ask.  One thing I did understand was: last night, the Church hosted a concert. (See photo above)  About 30 singers from America, the Symphonic Orchestra from Florence…three pieces of Mozart with an encore Mozart piece were performed that would make a grown man weep.  All for FREE.  The church was packed by Locals and the 9:00 concert started the customary 40 minutes late.  Imagine such a thing in this time of need and greed.  After the concert was over I went home and turned on the TV to catch up on the news.  There was a piece about how the  White House is hosting an Ultimate Fight Club event on the President’s birthday,  right there on the front lawn.  The event will cost somebody millions of dollars.  The Secretary of War has said some U.S. soldiers, if they are fit enough and can afford to pay their transportation, can come and watch for free.  And I thought one of my two worlds is approaching Beauty and the other has gone towards a certain Crassness.  But maybe it’s just a mood I’m in.