NOTHING


I believe that starting with the questions, observations, perceptions about things by other people it’s a good system of research. Looking for an answer, a solution or simply meditating around an opinion we would have never thought before it’s a the first step for understanding,
The question I want to answer ( or better, I will try to answer, filtering reality through my experiences and feelings) is:
-          What is there to do on your island? –
Of course the island is not “mine” with the meaning that I own it, but just that I was born on it.
The answer is:
-          Nothing. –
Some memory in the back of my brain often reminds me that nothing is better than doing nothing if someone want to do something.

It ‘s because sometimes the Nothing is made by Something. And the Something is not necessarily little. Just it is not visible at the first sight and needs some attention – and time -  to be seen.
The miracle of the sweetness of the sea urchin taste in the middle of the saltiness of the sea; the lines of the vines climbing from the granite rocks up to the hill; the faces carved by sun; the unbelievable crystal clear water reflecting the sun light with  a wide range of brilliant colours and of which soon someone would realize cannot do without – as soon people will realize how much the transparency is fundamental in life: this is part of the Something you would start to see behind the curtains of the Nothing just after the first steps on the island.

-          Any discoteque…? –
-          Any  attractions park…? -
Yes and no.
No if someone has got a standardized idea of fun: there are no Shopping Centres with  air conditioning shot out from powerful machines.

The idea here is the least standard: create your own fun. 



As well as people has been able to elaborate their own Modus Vivendi – way of life – on the island: creating their own economy based on particular techniques of cultivations,
fishing, breeding and developing their own customs and cooking; fighting, throughout the centuries,  against pirate invaders as well as against the daily problems generated by an isolated life; finding, among the personal controversies, a common solidarity to protect themselves against bad weather and enemies; children inventing their fun games without toys; gathering in someone’s cellar for a dinner soaked with their own wine and cheered  by invented poems in a rhyme  and songs;
 getting lost in the softness of a white beach; rolling in the sand like a candy in the sugar....

 meeting the most ancient disco of the world: it has been existing since before the invention of the records.


It takes time to see the “at the first time Invisible”  for multiple reasons; not least that it takes time to enter the circle of the islanders and gain their confidence. Nowadays, being able to see the secular culture is even more invisible as it covered by a layer of modern life: fast boats – rather than veil vessels - , cars – rather than donkeys -, cell phones –
 rather than hours of walking -, micro wave ovens – rather than healthy fish grilled directly on the beach -, computers are here exactly as anywhere else.

Although all this nothing, most of the people who have had the fortune to land upon this rock with the hope to find nothing, go away  with hidden tears wetting their cheecks and the new awareness to have had the most fun in their life: unforgettable foods, wine made by the Gods, songs like moving ballads, liberating laughs and lost words.

But, above all, with the newer awareness of feeling lighter, emptier and with the relief of being able to get rid of the imposed, commercial nothing to find themselves

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