January Editorial

Do not think about what the new year—this 2022 that appears so full of uncertainties—can do for you, but think about what you can do to make it better.

Let us start from this sacred truth that John Fitzgerald Kennedy, referring to the United States, gave us in his inaugural address, to face this beginning—lived halfway between hope and fear—in the right way.

I believe the perfect words are awareness and optimism.

Awareness: we all know that the pandemic has changed our lives over the last two years and that it is not over yet, but we have also understood (except for a minority of irresponsible people who refuse the vaccine) what we must do to protect ourselves and others. It is not certain that this latest Omicron variant—which is spreading like wildfire, especially among the young, but without consequences as grave as those that preceded it—might not finally allow us to reach the fateful herd immunity that could be the final act in the fight against Covid we have long awaited.

And then optimism, that disposition of the soul that helps us see the glass half full instead of half empty and, above all, allows us to face the future without negative preconceptions. At this moment, we do not need Cassandras predicting the worst disasters. We need to believe in ourselves, to commit to doing our best in what we are accustomed to doing, both at work and in the family, and we need to not be afraid.

To be honest, I didn’t want to write about the cursed Covid on the first day of the year but, having just returned from a few days in Spain, I realized that in Italy we cannot help but discuss it. Because all media, newspapers, television, the political world, and entertainment programs do nothing else. In other countries like Spain, however, where the infection situation is more or less identical to ours, the people—who conscientiously wear masks—are not constantly bombarded by a myriad of anxiety-inducing information. They have the news, they are informed but… the impression is that they also manage to live, even with all the necessary and sacrosanct restrictions.

This is the wish I feel like making today: let’s try to live, to rejoice in what we have, to inevitably learn a different lifestyle without considering it a sentence, but rather an “opportunity”. Let’s try not to be afraid of others, because the only chance we have to defeat the virus is to succeed together.

With awareness and optimism.

As the great Lucio Dalla used to say, “the year that is coming will be gone in a year’s time. I am preparing myself, that is the news.”

And you?