DAY 17: ANCHOR POINT

MIRIAM 17– Only a few words today, and a terrible headache. The one that won’t let you think straight, that every noise seems like a hammer in your head. So tonight I lightly knock on the door of this “house” and I sit on the sofa waiting or you to keep me company. You, dear Andre, and everyone who wants to join us. I’ll read you and I’ll plunge into your days with great pleasure.

I sit in the audience and I know I’ll watch a great show. All for me.

Show time.

ANDREA 17 – Climbers know there is a spot where you must fix the rope during the climb, as the cornerstone of the belay chain: it’s the anchorage point. Today I thought about the things that are becoming my anchorage points, during this weird, opposite climb towards the valley of contagion. I can count at least five things. A star. And everybody is contributing to make my days go by without boredom, keeping the longing to do things alive, the planning ability, the optimism. I am lucky. The first thing is married life, the chance to fall asleep in an embrace and to wake up the same way. Not everybody is that lucky. The second are the WhatsApp chats with my friends, above all the one called “FantaNetflix” on the first days of the quarantine and now “Stay home (ex Fanta)”, just to highlight our call to action. The third is work, the projects, the continuity between the life of yesterday and the life of today. Then there is the blog: absorbed in the today’s world, with the beautiful purpose of writing and engaging. And tonight I got scared when Miriam wavered for a moment because of a strong headache. I thought that one of the anchorage points would have loosened its hold, but then we tightened the rope, and  it’s still the both of us writing. The tip of the star is what I call day 1. I think about it all the time and now I know what I’m going to do: it will be the first Saturday after the “everybody cut loose”. I’ll get in the car to cover the 1000 km that from red would have gone green and I’ll come to Naples to re-embrace my family. I won’t carry any luggage, only my anchorage points.