Beware of thinking cap…

There’s a peculiar thing about facebook – well, more than one, but this specific one hit me the other day. We now regularly hook up with people we met or knew a long time ago, childhood friends that in time we grew apart from (some we outgrew, but being fb friends is still ok, not too invasive), people we dearly love but that live faraway, people with whom we crossed path, but who wouldn’t be in our daily sphere, but in thought, if it weren’t for the WWW and the social network vision of the world. Their lives are literally spread out in front of our eyes – and I don’t mean it negatively, but we have a sort of scrap album of everybody’s activities, more or less detailed, but always with at least a few pics, a suggestion to the composistion of their families, random messages to reveal and share moments of thier lives. While we are looking at the monitor we know that they are at the office, taking care of their families, or living some grand adventure. And that makes me think sometimes: oh, look at Christian, waking up everyday two steps from an oceanic beach; look at Claudia, living 10 months a year in a bikini; look at Sabrina, stepping onto the wooden planks of a capital’s stage; look at Martina, teaching at the university, in a language that isn’t even her native one, so capable, so professional; look at Simona, for whom celebrities are familiar faces and show business’ secrets a daily routine, and the Simona on the other side of the spectrum, who also lives in faraway countries, but decidedly less exotic, more dangerous and complex, but rich with the satisfaction of knowing that she truly is giving a helping hand to the less fortunate of this world. So sometimes it happens to me to think that, at some point of my life, I thought that would be my future, I hoped I could take that direction, I got close, then life turned out very differently. And sometimes I feel that I lacked something: had I been luckyer, more committed, more determinated, more disciplined, more adventurous, could I be “there” now? Would I enjoy it? Would I be any good at it? And the answers are multiple and the same: some things I could have done just as well, others I would have failed at, some could have made me happy, others would have been an escape. But these thoughts last less than the time it takes me to realise I have thought them. I have the life that I have chosen, more or less conciously, the life that Life worked out for me, with my complicity. My daily routines may look glamourous, or satisfying, or exceptional or heart warming to others: and if I step away and look at them, I look at me going through them, I can see the glamourous, satisfying, heartwarming side. And I see myself enjoying them fully, gratefully. We all are the sum of our potential, our chance and our choices: my sum turned out on the positive and very fortunate side of things. Yes, there’s more I can do, but I like that better than more that I could have done. Nothing is amiss, but there’s still space and time for dreams, projects, goals and surprises. I like the way my facebook pages are populated by interesting people: different, colourful, fun, professional, loving, odd… I like that my life is populated by them and I wish I could share more of my time with each of them, because people are the most surprising of all things crowding the planet. So I write a message, chat with one of them, take the phone and invite the other one over for the week-end – and let my life be touched, and stimulated, by theirs. So, thank you all.

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