Drawing on his own experience living with spastic tetraparesis, Claudio Imprudente looks at the world and the lives of handicapped people with clarity and realism. He asks: "What is normalcy? Who decides it?" He questions whether our society's way of relating to others—and the values it promotes—might be fundamentally mistaken. Beyond any handicap, limitation, or obstacle posed by illness now overcome, isn't there still a person—a man, woman, or child—with particular gifts and their own personality, who lives and loves like everyone else? "That's the point," he says. "We've built a society that distances us from mystery, from beauty, but also from the fear that mystery awakens in us. We can't see into ourselves." If we cannot see within ourselves, how can we fail to see within others?
It is through them—through accepting people who are different, sometimes hard to understand, yet always present and ready to listen, to help and be helped—that "Life" reveals itself. Claudio Imprudente doesn't stop there. He carries a charisma all his own and feels called to bear witness, a calling that draws him among people, among young people and teenagers. He believes that knowing others, understanding their struggles and their joys, leads to compassion, to peace, to friendship. Isn't this the love Jesus asks of us? He lives out this conviction daily with his friends, in groups, and in the Maranà-Thà community where he lives. * Claudio Imprudente works at the Disability Documentation Center of AIAS in Bologna, edits the bimonthly magazine ACCAPARLANTE, takes part in public discussions, and coordinates initiatives. One of his most recent projects is "PROGETTO CALAMAIO," in which elementary and middle school students in Bologna meet handicapped people and develop friendships with them. "Loving is my condition. So now, where people once came to me to give something—and it was one-way—there is always a real exchange. This is the culture that must surround and walk alongside disability."
- Natalia Livi, 1991
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