(John Blackeye) The great Totò could never have imagined such a situation, indeed, perhaps he would have laughed. All of Italy shut up at home because of a virus, or rather, the whole world shut up at home because of a virus. Perhaps he would have invented another poem, a "modern level". He, Toto had seen other tragedies, those of the War, terrible too. But if a comparison between tragedies were possible, I dare say that during the war you know and see the enemy, in this war against the pandemic the enemy you do not know and do not see.
And so we found ourselves all closed in the house, beautiful and ugly, good and bad, young and old, all reset to zero by an invisible level.
Great managers, professors, doctors, generals, managers together with employees, students, the sick, soldiers and workers, we found ourselves at home looking at the sky outside the window in the hope that everything will pass as soon as possible and we can return to do what was done before.
But would this really be the hope? That is, everyone returns as before? By now the transcendent no longer finds a place in the consciences of the whole of Humanity and the big risk is that after the passage of the pandemic, because also the pandemic has a beginning and an end, everything returns just as before.
I strongly believe that this global emergency represents a turning point for Humanity.
A disease that does not look at anyone and that kills both the rich and the poor, both the powerful and the defenseless, should make us think.
Behind those windows or on the balconies, to savor those breaths of air that we had taken for granted, we should really understand that nothing can be taken for granted. We should take note that life is not in our hands and that everything can change at any moment.
Success, careers, money probably were not the result of our skill but they were also part of a social mechanism that responded to certain rules.
All this silence outside the balconies should help us to reflect on the smallness of our strength and we would probably be able to think that everything was a gift and not a result of skill.
Eloquence, intelligence, perspicacity and determination perhaps served no purpose if the terminus was the same for everyone. Yes, because behind that window, imprisoned by an invisible virus, we are all there.
I think this extraordinary event really represents a turning point for humanity. Not only for those who have always relied on his great skills to elbow up in an upbeat and cynical society but also for all those who have spent their lives hurting others. This virus, which can have nothing good, since it takes a few thousand people away from the face of the earth every day, can have a small positive facet, that is to keep trapped in the cages of one's conscience, as well as in one's own homes, even those who until a few days ago they did - "harm" - their purpose in life. Behind these windows, to breathe a breath of air, there are also thieves, drug dealers, swindlers, mobsters who, faced with a world that stops, fortunately for us, are forced to stop even their wrongdoings.
Behind the windows of millions of apartments all over the world there are also families and perhaps this is an opportunity to understand that the people we have next to us are not those enemies that we used to fight with hate. This time of forced quarantine puts us in a position to detoxify ourselves from the poison that society has inoculated for decades. The dads have the opportunity to understand that football matches, leagues and everything that circled around these environments made an absurd noise, they were nothing but nothing. Sundays spent in front of the television or in a stadium, to see twenty-two players chasing a ball, it was nothing but nothing. Their champions are now disease positive and if anyone among them has faith, he is praying to God that he will come out.
Mothers they can return to being the queen of the house, the center of the family. They can put aside nail polish, make-up and gyms to look their children in the eyes without delegating their education to that damned television that wants to transform us into automata without conscience. Everyone can rediscover the sense of family together.
Here, the virus cannot have any positive side but a turning point is offering it to the whole of humanity. If all goes well - and that doesn't depend on our healthy optimism or our strength - but it's all in the hands of God, we will be able to reset the counter of evil and start again on the path of good and if then we could also rekindle our consciences and understand that outside those windows there is a Creator God to whom we have recently replaced ourselves feeling like eternal fathers, then that Sun that now we look in the sky breathing deeply into those mouthfuls of air that we had taken for granted, that Sun will enter it.