Sterne docet
“ being firmly persuaded that every time a man smiles, but much more so, when he laughs, that is adds something to this Fragment of Life”
Questa citazione proviene dall'incipit di uno dei capolavori più divertenti e smaccatamente anachici della storia della letteratura, ovvero The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy , chaotic and hyper-realistic novel written by the Reverend Sir Laurence Sterne around the second half of the 700 and published "series" in 7 (or 9) volumes.
" being [implied:" I "] firmly convinced that every time a man smiles, or better yet, when he laughs, he adds something to this fragment which is the Life, "we can translate, take more of a freedom from the original text ...
I'm going through a period of a thousand miles away from the smile (or, better still, from rice), the whole world is going through a dark period (Berlusconi is still alive, the Italian left is still searching for a CG, Japan has just suffered one of the most violent earthquakes in its history, Gaddafi challenge the world of its Libya - which has never felt so "his", of course - the Italian State schools suffer cuts Reform Gelmini, children no longer know what meaning to give the word "future", and so so on), and short, making the sum of the events that each of us can testify, there is really nothing to laugh about. And I think (or rather, I try to imagine) how life was in England (or rather, in Scotland) Act 1750, as we lived out there, how much pain and trouble (both physical and moral) had to endure the hard way Reverend above, which had to face the printer that was to take the trouble to publish the text of the physically Tristram Shandy , and had to face the wife of Sterne ( was an Anglican clergyman, he could get married while being a minister) when he told her she was in love with another, when it had already had two sons and Sterne had become a literary event in London, where his remaining few years to live (he died in 1768 at 54 years young, we would say today ...).
In short, life is full of opportunities to cry and avarissima of occasions to laugh (or laugh). When we laugh, really adds something to this small fragment that is life? I think so, because these are rare occasions and that we must be able to live up to, seize the right moment, without inhibitions.
I often recall the friends with whom I could laugh out loud. They were jovial friends, who knew how to listen, advise, host, and give me a smile when needed (at the right time, in fact). I remember the laughs with my ex, when we went to a movie theater after seeing a movie that he liked them both, though for very different reasons (but you've seen that movie? Do not know, and if there was sleeping). I remember laughing with my brother, a few, but indelible in my memory, because it triggered following a few common memories of childhood or adolescence. And I remember the laughter made in the company of my best friend (with him the opportunities are still frequent, is a salvation to rely on a best friend, when you feel stuck or too much, too much alone on this universe). And without the laughs with some old school or with a few friends who do not see you for a lifetime. The laughter, then, becomes a passage, a door, a kind of threshold for a glimpse of a world, a better world than where we are usually where you can stop being afraid of death or to be afraid of be betrayed the other, or being deceived and cheated, in which, for once, you can take off your armor, put the sword down, and stop fighting, to finally enjoy the end of the fight that daily battle to stay on this ground without being trampled by others.
So maybe he's right Laurence Sterne; really add something to this Fragment of Life (Life), when you smile or even better, when we laugh. Although it is difficult to laugh and difficult to find the right people with whom the laughter flows spontaneously and naturally, without deceit or hypocrisy in half to destroy the social landscape and the day ...
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