Dear Friends, athletes, kiters or simply people like me
I am half Italian and half French, live in Spain, have 2 children living in London and one in Shanghai. All of these countries are going through a terrible period in their existence and survival. In Italy and other European countries it is the older people that are suffering and dying the most. That is why my wife and I decided to come and spend the confinement with my mother in law who is 85 years old and lives on her own in the French countryside. It is during these difficult times that we need, and in most cases do, show compassion, love, support and help to the people that need it most. And if one day I will have to thank this terrible tragedy brought about by the Covid 19 virus for having made us all more humble, more generous, more human, then I will.
My wife and I are very fortunate Vs the vast majority of people confined in Europe, as our confinement is taking place in the countryside, in the garden with fresh and clean air and not in a small apartment with a large family all doing their daily chores of smart working, internet schooling, managing tight finances, keeping the family together. Not easy, so let’s make sure that we also help those that are in a less fortunate position than we are, how? First of all by recognising their existence and their daily struggle to survive and most importantly to not ignore them again once this period will be over. Its too easy to say that it is the role and responsibility of our governments to take care of the needy, to restore the economy, to prevent the next national health crises, etc. It is us who make up and shape the society we live in, so lets not simply delegate such responsibility to a greater entity.
And I have great hope and daily dream of my latest trips to NE Brazil, to Rancho do Peixe in Prea, to Vila Kalango in Jericuacuara, to our E. Group partner pousadas. I daydream of sitting on the sandy dunes and simply watch the SSF kiters being carried by the natural and gentle force of the wind, and plan on what will I do, when and where, because daydreaming, planning for the better days to come allows me to keep positively alive while facing the harsh daily reality of confinement and the fight against Covid 19 that we will win, of this I am sure and not just hopeful.
So my friends lets carry on dreaming and planning for both a better World and our own better days to come while listening to ‘dreamer’ a great Supertramp song from their 1974 album crime of the century. What an appropriate title for my Blog contribution today: Covid 19 is the Crime of the Century and Dreamer is the antidote!
Ciao and keep on dreaming
Roberto Ascoli