Post-September 11 Christmas: The path ahead, seeming arduous, might find renewal by embracing the purity and creativity inherent in children
Until September 11, there was talk of too much well-being, exaggerated consumerism, excessive liberty…
After the live viewing of that terrible attack on the skyscrapers of Manhattan – a symbol for many of an inviolable civilization – we found ourselves, suddenly, afraid.
Now we no longer talk like before: we are disoriented, divided, perplexed. Now, we are forced to witness the intensification of the bombing of one of the poorest countries in the world, already proved by years of war, of missing well-being and freedom. And we ask ourselves, “Is this doing justice?”
For years we have lived next to people who, with their fragility, have taught us to have a different look at others; they have guided us to the search not for the merit of the person, but for the acceptance of everyone for what they are, different from us, certainly, difficult to understand… They have taught us not to stop at appearances, to stand up for comprehension and dialogue, and to distrust the prejudices.
What then will be our response to the dramatic situation that has created?
We have always known that not wanting war signifies preparing for peace, every day, as you can, where you are. Every gesture, initiative, work, study or commitment, whether in defense of the value of man – of any man – of his recovery, of his respect, of his education, is and will always promote the peace.
Isn’t this the message that for two thousand years we have heard vibrating since the night of December twenty-fourth?
As a child, I listened confidently to my grandmother tell me that every time someone makes a gesture of peace on earth, a star lights up there in the sky. Perhaps only by rediscovering the innocence and ingenuity of children, will it be possible for us to resume with hope a path that appears so difficult.
Perhaps, only by putting ourselves on the path taken by so many others, making sure that, always, new ones are added, we will be able to make the sky above us stronger than the darkness.
In the following pages – the stories, the facts, the people, the reflections that appear there – they want to be like little stars shining in the dark sky of this Christmas.
Mariangela Bertolini, 2001
Translation from Italian to English by Daniela Bachman on the initiative of the “Italian 251: Composition & Conversation II” course taught by Nives Valli using the Service-Learning pedagogical approach at John Felice Rome Center della Loyola University Chicago.
