A father. A daughter. A clear-eyed, intense bond. A short book to read and reread, to keep close at hand. A father who watches his daughter, discovering her day by day, and learns through her what love truly is.
Through the story of his life with Olga, through examples and reflection, doubt and proposal, the reader is drawn to feel as he feels, to love as he loves. In her simple presence, Olga seems to take us by the hand as she takes her father's, leading us to overturn the values that poison our lives and offering us concrete alternatives in their place: kindness, gentleness, a sense of humor, love of peace and revulsion at violence, patience and solidarity. Each letter explores one of these themes and others, overflowing with gratitude. Yet even gratitude falls silent before the respect owed to mystery. "And so, Olga, I love you for what I know of you and for what you give me, but also for what is mysterious in you—this intimate corner of your thoughts and feelings that in your 'deficiency' is not accessible to my 'knowledge.' And I love this incapacity to know you completely, because it shows me that you are not a catalogable byproduct of nature without a shadow of doubt, but a fully human being. The human being is characterized precisely by complexity—a complexity that cannot be imprisoned in any code or database." Gratitude and respect thus lead the reader to broader reflections on what is owed to those near us—or far from us—however they may be. It is the recognition of the other, of you, rich in your uniqueness, responsible and protagonist of your own life.
So the author speaks to his daughter: "You do not know it, but each time you come near and say 'it is I,' you not only place yourself exactly in your place, but you make me recognize mine—I am your you—and more still: you place all the things of this world in their proper place."
Natalia Livi, 1990