Do you remember Angelo, our first meeting at school two years ago? You were lying on your mat and I was sitting on the floor beside you. Even in that position I was still taller than you, but you wouldn't have it. Everything about you seemed to tell me:
«Come down a little farther.»
It is not easy to descend when you have grown accustomed to seeing things upside down. I hesitated to follow you and so many others down the path of the Beatitudes—afraid I might lose my way, afraid of going too far even in the right direction.
Then last summer you looked after me for two weeks in Alfedena. You had your hands full!
As I dressed you, fed you, held you close, you kept saying: «Come down a little farther.»
Your fragility in my hands asked me to give up every defense I had built around myself. My systems and my prejudices crumbled before your vulnerability and your smile.
The other day I met a boy from Marseille, Angelo, and he too is asking me to make myself small. I wonder if you will meet him someday? His name is Eric.
- Louis, 1990