O&L Meets...
Monica Leggeri's journey begins in her years as a scout and extends to the final page of a recent book that moved her deeply. She is the author of this month's O&L Meets. An encounter that started with Robi, continued with his sister Anna Claudia Cartoni, and arrived at her daughter—whose story now stands at the heart of Irene sta carina (Harpo 2020). "Reading this book," Leggeri writes, "is like climbing a mountain (…). Because walking steep and unknown paths takes your breath away. But when you can stop to look at the ground you've covered, the beauty of the view you've conquered gives you strength and courage again."
The Essay
"A few days have passed since World Disability Day, and I am still disabled. The words have ended, the spotlights have gone dark, as have the camera lights, but we continue to reckon with our different abilities and with all the obstacles that this society refuses to remove—or worse, puts in our way." Sharp and precise as always, Laura Coccia reflects on the right to education for people with disabilities, with particular attention to university. Steep climbs here too, but here also the wonder of achievement—finding yourself, for example, in the snow in Leipzig during an Erasmus year.
Book of the Month
A daughter searching for her father: one day Marta Barone finds a cardboard box, and a wall of questions demanding answers. In pursuit of them, she stumbles upon the history of Villa Azzurra, the infamous juvenile psychiatric hospital in Turin. For us, and for Giulia Galeotti who reviews it, Città sommersa (Bompiani 2020) is the book of the month. "Painful, alive, magnificent."
Then Christmas Arrives
In this difficult 2020, Christmas arrives with many unknowns, suspended moments, sorrows, and hopes. It arrives by changing our habits and those of many places like L'Alveare, a Thursday afternoon workshop at Santa Silvia in Rome—stories of Pietro Bigari, Fabio Grossi, and Fabio Ventura—told by Cristina Tersigni—that revolve around the long tables in the parish hall. It is the memory, both painful and joyful, of activities suspended but alive. Somehow reinvented.
And it is with a thoughtful reflection from a few years ago by Mariangela Bertolini that we send you our wishes. A reflection written for the difficult Christmas of 2001, the Christmas after September 11. "Perhaps," Bertolini concluded, with observations more timely than ever, "only by placing ourselves on the path walked by so many others—ensuring that still, always, new others join—can we make the sky above us stronger than the darkness."
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Riccardo (7 years old) and Francesco, his special friend
Benedetta's Blog
Every Now and Then I Save, or Else It Goes Wrong
Here's the situation. With a computer I'm lightning fast and I could be the mayor of Rome and even the principal. I'm a genius. I do everything all by myself. Just now I wrote a free-form essay. I do it like this. Keep reading...
Post of the Month
Covid is cursed and causes grave, incalculable damage.
Yesterday morning it also took away the great Lucio Moderato,...Posted by Elio e le Storie Tese on Friday, December 11, 2020
Fede e Luce Life
On the occasion of World Disability Day on December 3, Fede e Luce took part in The Prophecy of Brotherhood, an event organized by the Italian Bishops' Conference that invited Italian and international organizations working in pastoral care for people with disabilities. The first part of the broadcast featured videos presenting the different responses various organizations gave to the health emergency (here is Fede e Luce's #CloseAtDistance). This was followed, during prayer and alongside other international contributions, by a mime of the Good Samaritan.
Meanwhile, remote meetings continue, and while lacking in-person contact, they never fail to bring profound emotion, like the joy of the Edelweiss community.
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