Holism

“Just as there exists in writing a literal truth and a poetic truth, there also exists in a human being a literal anatomy and a poetic anatomy. One you can see, one you can only feel. One is made of bones and flesh, the other is made of energy, memory and faith.” But they are both equally true and must live in harmony.”

The land of contradictions!

Italy! Never have I encountered a country with as many contradictions as there are Mafia gods or types of pasta!

Italy seems to live by its contradictions!

Without them I fear Italy would simply not survive.

Only Italians could have invented a language where the same word ‘perche’ can mean both, because & why!?

Within the paradigms of North & South

There exist the extremes of Wealth or Poverty,

New or Old Traditions, Fast or Slow, Beautiful or Ugly,

Innocence, Beauty & Power against Lies, destruction & pain.

Two extremes of everything,

Nothing existing in between,

Italians are either one or the other,

With no room for the middle.

I am convinced Italians see it as their god given right to be able to change their minds whenever they see fit

To change the rules to benefit their situation at any given time and then revert back again whenever they choose.

Without even a thought to the hypocrisy of it all.

I am sure this must be where Italian bureaucracy comes from!

There are laws written to allow the contradictions for gods’ sake!

Yet it’s the bureaucracy that makes Italy so hard to live in.

Nothing is ever straight forward.

Even simple dealings with the health or education systems always without fail leave you wanting to pull your hair out at the sheer stupidity of it all!

Take for example the Italian postal service (If you can call it a service!)

On the surface it seems to be a functioning, organised system, but it is deeply deceiving to the eye.

One thing you have to understand is that post in Italy is not a given.

You can never trust that you will receive your parcels.

All you can do is put it out of your mind and live in hope that it will arrive safely or not safely at all!

It’s like a probability equation.

Your considered lucky if you receive any more than 50% of your post!

And anything above that and you’re pushing your luck!

A String of thoughts...

Leftovers, in their less visible form are known to us simply as memories. Stored in the refrigerator of the mind and the cupboard of the heart.

Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make. Something you do, something you are and something you give away.

Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.

If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem. Everything else is mere inconvenience.

It will be a great day when our hospitals and schools have all the money they need and our air force has to have a bake-sale to buy a bomber!

The world does not need more tourists who ride buses clicking their cameras. The world as it is needs more of those who will love it enough to change it with what they have, where they are, now.

Attraversiamo...

By this time tomorrow I will have set off to cross my twelfth border into a new country.

It’s at this point, roughly 24 hours before I begin to depart, that I start to get the first pangs of excitement. It’s in these moments I truly know I am meant to be an explorer.

With the knowledge I will soon enter a new culture, with another language, another currency, a new landscape to discover, I find myself bouncing with the anticipation at the thought of a new unknown to explore.

The sense of adventure is what gets me.

I find it captivating and exhilarating all at the same time.

The thought of being able to explore a new unknown and take the time to understand its cultures and people.

I get a real thrill when given the chance to see how people of other countries and cultures live their lives.

I seek to find the similarities or differences in their lives to others.  

Isn’t it fascinating how we can all be of the same race yet because of our surroundings be so utterly different?