Escape for a living...

Too many thoughts or just the desire to fly away. To where? Dunno.

Unplanned shot. Enough lucky shot.

“Escape for a living”, the title that I gave to this picture.
I do love this shot. I put this in my mp3 read as background, more than an year ago. It’s still there.

The birds take off if there is a suspicious noise or shadow getting too close, they survive this way.

My imagination or desire to smile “take off” when a too sad thought or situation is getting too close…but sometimes I cannot catch my own thoughts.

Little sparrows “work” best

And it’s so weird to discover that this picture has been taken on March 30th 2008, just an year before I did the first part of an exam that is slowing down my studies a lot. Looks like someone is trying to mock me, or just to make me smile.

Silence.

It’s said to be gold.
For a Catholic, especially during Lent, silence is important because it allows thinking and praying. That’s true, silence sometimes is as precious as gold, and even more.

That’s the good silence.
There is a bad silence? In my humble opinion: yes, there is!
Something that literally drives me crazy is the minute, or so, of silence asked when something of bad happens. Beside the fact that I have big problems to accept that someone tells me when I have to keep silent or not, I wonder what the hell they think you can understand ALONE in one minute? Alone? Yep, because if you just keep silent, if you don’t pray if you don’t think (keeping silent doesn’t assure that you are “thinking about”) you are alone and you will just waste a minute of your life.

I think there are many “shades”of silence.
Indeed in the midway from bad silence to good one, there is that kind of silence that you cannot define “hurtful”, but you are in even if you don’t want to. I grew up in this kind of silence. I have a good family and I had some friends, but for years I spent most of my free time staying at home and that’s why I started to read, write down stuff, do some “artistic” works, chat online or (later) taking photographs.
For me I wasn't being in silence because during each of this activity I could hear my voice in my mind... but if something distracted me from my activity, this made me realize how lonely and silent I was being.
Just for example... when I read I hear the voice of my mind, or if the book is cool I can see images and hear characters' different voices and I don’t feel alone…unless something call back me to reality. Often, when I used to read at night, was a man on a carriage pulled by an horse passing at 4am. The horse step noise made me realize that I had spent all the night awake and alone.

I used to consider these “silent situations" normal life situation… till a night of few days ago, when I found myself thinking about what I have done in my life. That night I realized that I spent a lot of my time alone surrounded by a silence similar to the one that was surrounding me in that moment, and…that was a silence I couldn’t stop! Even listening to music wouldn’t have made me able to destroy my loneliness and sadness.

I wished I could turn on my computer and listen to my friend voice, as I used to do some summers before... and this made me realize that I couldn’t remember the voice of the only friend (known online) I spoke via voice for a lot of time.
In that moment I hated silence! I linked it with the idea of being alone an sad, and this drove me crazy because I felt alike I wasted my youth with reading, writing, chatting, taking pictures…
But, while I was thinking this, in my mind comes up this image:
I took this photo in April 2006. In the back yard of my country house. I was ,again alone at silence but there was no way that I could consider that silence annoying. Nothing could make me think that I had wasted my time that day. Indeed I consider that day, one of the happiest day of my life.
Once again a picture calmed me down, made me appreciate what I had received in my life. I appreciated life itself.

That’s probably a goal of good silences, and that’s probably the kind of silence I feel more comfortable with.

Being alone, with my camera trying to create, but I would say “to save”, wonderful frames of this world.

Am I blasphemous if I say that this the best way I can pray?

Isn't the Pope Cool? ;)

MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER
BENEDICT XVI
FOR THE 43rd WORLD DAY OF COMMUNICATIONS

"New Technologies, New Relationships.
Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship."

May 24, 2009

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

In anticipation of the forthcoming World Communications Day, I would like to address to you some reflections on the theme chosen for this year - New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship. The new digital technologies are, indeed, bringing about fundamental shifts in patterns of communication and human relationships. These changes are particularly evident among those young people who have grown up with the new technologies and are at home in a digital world that often seems quite foreign to those of us who, as adults, have had to learn to understand and appreciate the opportunities it has to offer for communications. In this year’s message, I am conscious of those who constitute the so-called digital generation and I would like to share with them, in particular, some ideas concerning the extraordinary potential of the new technologies, if they are used to promote human understanding and solidarity. These technologies are truly a gift to humanity and we must endeavour to ensure that the benefits they offer are put at the service of all human individuals and communities, especially those who are most disadvantaged and vulnerable.

The accessibility of mobile telephones and computers, combined with the global reach and penetration of the internet, has opened up a range of means of communication that permit the almost instantaneous communication of words and images across enormous distances and to some of the most isolated corners of the world; something that would have been unthinkable for previous generations. Young people, in particular, have grasped the enormous capacity of the new media to foster connectedness, communication and understanding between individuals and communities, and they are turning to them as means of communicating with existing friends, of meeting new friends, of forming communities and networks, of seeking information and news, and of sharing their ideas and opinions. Many benefits flow from this new culture of communication: families are able to maintain contact across great distances; students and researchers have more immediate and easier access to documents, sources and scientific discoveries, hence they can work collaboratively from different locations; moreover, the interactive nature of many of the new media facilitates more dynamic forms of learning and communication, thereby contributing to social progress.

While the speed with which the new technologies have evolved in terms of their efficiency and reliability is rightly a source of wonder, their popularity with users should not surprise us, as they respond to a fundamental desire of people to communicate and to relate to each other. This desire for communication and friendship is rooted in our very nature as human beings and cannot be adequately understood as a response to technical innovations. In the light of the biblical message, it should be seen primarily as a reflection of our participation in the communicative and unifying Love of God, who desires to make of all humanity one family. When we find ourselves drawn towards other people, when we want to know more about them and make ourselves known to them, we are responding to God’s call - a call that is imprinted in our nature as beings created in the image and likeness of God, the God of communication and communion.

The desire for connectedness and the instinct for communication that are so obvious in contemporary culture are best understood as modern manifestations of the basic and enduring propensity of humans to reach beyond themselves and to seek communion with others. In reality, when we open ourselves to others, we are fulfilling our deepest need and becoming more fully human. Loving is, in fact, what we are designed for by our Creator. Naturally, I am not talking about fleeting, shallow relationships, I am talking about the real love that is at the very heart of Jesus’ moral teaching: "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength" and "You must love your neighbour as yourself" (cf. Mk 12:30-31). In this light, reflecting on the significance of the new technologies, it is important to focus not just on their undoubted capacity to foster contact between people, but on the quality of the content that is put into circulation using these means. I would encourage all people of good will who are active in the emerging environment of digital communication to commit themselves to promoting a culture of respect, dialogue and friendship.

Those who are active in the production and dissemination of new media content, therefore, should strive to respect the dignity and worth of the human person. If the new technologies are to serve the good of individuals and of society, all users will avoid the sharing of words and images that are degrading of human beings, that promote hatred and intolerance, that debase the goodness and intimacy of human sexuality or that exploit the weak and vulnerable.

The new technologies have also opened the way for dialogue between people from different countries, cultures and religions. The new digital arena, the so-called cyberspace, allows them to encounter and to know each other’s traditions and values. Such encounters, if they are to be fruitful, require honest and appropriate forms of expression together with attentive and respectful listening. The dialogue must be rooted in a genuine and mutual searching for truth if it is to realize its potential to promote growth in understanding and tolerance. Life is not just a succession of events or experiences: it is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful. It is to this end that we make our choices; it is for this that we exercise our freedom; it is in this - in truth, in goodness, and in beauty - that we find happiness and joy. We must not allow ourselves to be deceived by those who see us merely as consumers in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty, and subjective experience displaces truth.

The concept of friendship has enjoyed a renewed prominence in the vocabulary of the new digital social networks that have emerged in the last few years. The concept is one of the noblest achievements of human culture. It is in and through our friendships that we grow and develop as humans. For this reason, true friendship has always been seen as one of the greatest goods any human person can experience. We should be careful, therefore, never to trivialize the concept or the experience of friendship. It would be sad if our desire to sustain and develop on-line friendships were to be at the cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbours and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work, education and recreation. If the desire for virtual connectedness becomes obsessive, it may in fact function to isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development.

Friendship is a great human good, but it would be emptied of its ultimate value if it were to be understood as an end in itself. Friends should support and encourage each other in developing their gifts and talents and in putting them at the service of the human community. In this context, it is gratifying to note the emergence of new digital networks that seek to promote human solidarity, peace and justice, human rights and respect for human life and the good of creation. These networks can facilitate forms of co-operation between people from different geographical and cultural contexts that enable them to deepen their common humanity and their sense of shared responsibility for the good of all. We must, therefore, strive to ensure that the digital world, where such networks can be established, is a world that is truly open to all. It would be a tragedy for the future of humanity if the new instruments of communication, which permit the sharing of knowledge and information in a more rapid and effective manner, were not made accessible to those who are already economically and socially marginalized, or if it should contribute only to increasing the gap separating the poor from the new networks that are developing at the service of human socialization and information.

I would like to conclude this message by addressing myself, in particular, to young Catholic believers: to encourage them to bring the witness of their faith to the digital world. Dear Brothers and Sisters, I ask you to introduce into the culture of this new environment of communications and information technology the values on which you have built your lives. In the early life of the Church, the great Apostles and their disciples brought the Good News of Jesus to the Greek and Roman world. Just as, at that time, a fruitful evangelization required that careful attention be given to understanding the culture and customs of those pagan peoples so that the truth of the gospel would touch their hearts and minds, so also today, the proclamation of Christ in the world of new technologies requires a profound knowledge of this world if the technologies are to serve our mission adequately. It falls, in particular, to young people, who have an almost spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication, to take on the responsibility for the evangelization of this "digital continent". Be sure to announce the Gospel to your contemporaries with enthusiasm. You know their fears and their hopes, their aspirations and their disappointments: the greatest gift you can give to them is to share with them the "Good News" of a God who became man, who suffered, died and rose again to save all people. Human hearts are yearning for a world where love endures, where gifts are shared, where unity is built, where freedom finds meaning in truth, and where identity is found in respectful communion. Our faith can respond to these expectations: may you become its heralds! The Pope accompanies you with his prayers and his blessing.

From the Vatican, 24 January 2009, Feast of Saint Francis de Sales.

BENEDICTUS XVI

_____________________________________________

I wrote a post in italian some days ago, but it's pretty long. I wish I will find the time to translate it some day. But, let me tell you that this message can be really enough! :)

Fleck of dust

"I, being but a fleck of dust into the world, I am bigger than the world itself. ".

(Catania, Saturday 17th January 2009)

The sentence is a translation of a Father Giussani's sentence, that i read in a book some years ago.

Company

Yeah! I am crazy! A crazy idiot!

I am an idiot because I wasted the whole day for the pain that I let win on my will to study.
I kept having pity of my self for being so "weak" and this made me close my eyes, as always.

I am crazy because while I was writing an endless post with thousands of words that said nothing I realized how to say something i have been wanting to say for 2 weeks or so.
The concept, in my mind, is linked to this picture

that I took in August 2008 during a walk I had with some relatives. There were me, my parents, my aunt and my grandma, we went out to pick some blackberries.
That day was cloudy and annoying, I had taken almost no pictures but when we went out for that (unplanned) walk the sun come out and I had the chance to take some pictures.

This picture recall me some concept that are the main themes of the thought of these last months, of course when I am not too busy with complaining! ;)
Recently I have been thinking a lot about the value of a family and of a "company" and how both are necessary to be happy... and because I have to start from some point my mind picked up to think about family and the movement my family belong.

Indeed, I grown up in a family belonging to a Catholic movement (Comunion and Liberation) and it's clear what importance they, at least theoretically, give to the fact of being a "company".
I guess it is normal that when I was a child that group of people meant "home" for me... but with the passing of the years I couldn't stand most of them anymore, as well as I couldn't stand almost any other human being.

So, I guess it's normal that the last time in my life I felt really at home was in March 2002 while I was being confirmed in the Cathedral of my town.


During the Mass the choir started to sing something. I cannot remember what it was but it called me back while I was getting lost in not really good thought alike:
"Tomorrow I have that annoying Latin test, today it's cold, I am nervous and some "creative guy" had the unhappy idea to make 7 people sit on the same bench... it's symbolical I know, but half of me is sitting on nothing, i am suspends it's so uncomfortable, beside the cathedral is full of people but except my parents no one of them is a friend or a relative of mine.. I feel so..."
the song changed the thought in: "... Wow! COOL! I feel at home, everything is fine!"

The beauty of the singing, the beauty of the place I was being in, the beauty and the importance of what was happening made me find back serenity, and erased from my mind any bad thought. Well, it helped also to see that my religion teacher came for me. She didn't knew me and I didn't have a great esteem of her but she proved I was wrong, she showed me that despite she wasn't able of witty speech she had what is really required to be a great person: A good hearth.

In the following years I forgot all these church-related events, i focused only on my problems and let only some "chat friends" to help me...
I let you imagine my surprise and my pleasure to see that, finally even on that "devilish web", there were member of that"company" I had missed for years. And I let you imagine that one of them is actually a member of THAT choir that made me feel me at home some years ago.

I still think that I won't feel "at home" as that day anymore, that there is actually no home for me... but, now, at least, I feel a lot of steps closer to that "home" I am looking for...

There is still a lot to say and to do, but it's late, it's better if I go to bed in order to avoid to waste another day, even if I am starting to think that I didn't waste this friday at all, thanks to love and friendship that surrounds me...

...and sorry if I have bothered you.

:)

Peeking Kitten

The 16th September 2008 I went with my boyfriend to take some pictures to the ruins of a roman amphitheater that there is in Catania... well, I guess that the first lesson of that day is: "Taking pictures to monuments isn't something you should keep doing".
Indeed, I enjoyed more to take pictures to some kittens that had their "house" there. These little cats gave me the chance to take a lot of pictures and of different kind: from the happy to the gloomy type.

Today, I choose a picture, that, according to me, belongs to the second group... or at least, it seams so to me and I feel kinda of "represented" from this kitten.


This little guy used to be peeking from its home t to see if it was safe to get out, its siblings did alike but this one was probably the most prudent kitten.... then, I set with my camera a little further and I started to watch and wait.

All the kittens came out 3 or 4 times, giving me the chance to take some nice shots. Later, alas, came a numerous group of tourists that scared the little cats a who run to their home

After few minuets my boyfriend showed me that there were grinds on the floor, from these grids you could see part of some tunnels... the cat of the picture was watching us, at a first moment I thought to take another picture of this cat but the kitten behind the grid seemed in prison so I gave up the idea to take this picture and I went away in order to leave at peace that little cat.

Nostalgia is... missing a friend

"I don't want him for other four years!" or something similar said Randy when Bush won for the second time the election to be USA president.
I remember I tired to make Randy smile and show him that 4 years are not the eternity, that they will pass and he won't Bush won't be the president any longer.. I think that as always happened with him that frustrated conversation changed into a fun one and every sad thought disappeared, from our minds, for a little while.

I guess it's normal I have been thinking about him a lot in these days.
I found me thinking things like: "somehow those 4 years really meant the eternity for Randy"; or yesterday I was thinking: "I am sure he knows who is going to win and he is probably laughing at the idea we don't know"; and today I am thinking "I would like to know what he would have said about these election. I would like to know who he would have voted for... probably Obama?!".

Yeah, I am missing a lot our fun chats!

About a dream, about an hope.

The dream

Who knows me knows also that I dream a lot and one of my biggest dream is to go, at least for a travel, in the USA.
I have had this (not that) secret wish surely since I was 9... probably even since I was 6, indeed, few months ago I discovered that, on a side of a table that was in my room, there is a label where I wrote my name and my surname and "New York". This label reminded me that I liked the idea to be visiting at least that city since I was 6 or so.

I guess that now I don't know exactly which is the FIRST thing that made me having this wish but I can say that the reasons to go there changed with the passing of years.
For example, in the last 4 years the reason that makes me keep on with this dream is the desire to go for a visit and an hug, at least once in my life, those American friends I talk with almost every day.

The hope

Now ...Americans are voting. And I am curious to know what is going on... but at the moment the only thing I understood is that journalist, politicians and writers are fully expressing their endless ability to keep talking for HOURS about something they don't know! It will take a lot of hours till will be clear who is the 44th USA president. It's a little irritating, so I decided to turn off television, and going to sleep but...

But, before closing this day I wanted to express my hope about what is going on.
I cannot express my opinion because I know pretty few about politics, I let you figure out what I know about USA one... but I think you don't have to be an expert to understand that this an important day for USA and world future.
So, even if I don't know who is the best one between Obama and McCain, I HOPE that will win the "less dangerous" one! :) I hope this because USA is too powerful and its government behavior can influence world history a lot.

Really, may God bless American and suggests to American citizen and politicians the best behavior.

May the whole world moves, with the help of God, toward the proper direction.

Against Darkness

It was a Monday in late November. You had come to the university even if you hadn’t to. You wanted to spend lunch time with me because you knew I would have been alone, you knew I needed you.

In those days, too, I used to go to the university with my digital SLR camera because I wanted to catch something for a university photographic contest.

That Monday, after lunch, we had a free hour or so before I had to go to the laboratory for a couple of hours and you offered to be the subject for a picture.
I have spent one of the most amazing hours in my life, I was spending time with you, I was taking picture and you were a perfect model! You did everything I said you to do… “Go there”, “look on the right, not that much”, “now look toward me”, “no, no, no, turn on the page too, don’t be so steady!”.

Here the best picture I shot that Monday…

It’s among the best pictures I ever shot. This picture means a lot for me.
There is you, the person I love since March 2007 [well...that's the "official" date but... :)].
This is the final result of a series of tests I did to learn a new photography technique.
This is also a post-it of a great lesson I should never forget: “Love taking picture, love what you are taking picture at”. I realized this rule only after few months when I understood that one of the common elements of each picture I am “proud” of is the mood I was when I shot that picture: being glad. Yeah, usually I take pictures I like only when I really love the reality that is surrounding me at that moment, when I am glad to have had the chance to see that beautiful aspect of this world.
And in that Monday it was you, holding the “Bible” for physicist that study matter and listening to my “orders” and doing something you had never done but seemed so “natural” for you.

You know that this picture is also shown in an article written on another blog about photography, and thanks to this article I had found at least 3 new friends.

I didn’t win that contest but you are beside me, I have learnt a new technique and probably one of the “golden rules” to take pictures and I had met new friends.

I think I have received from that hour of “work” not what I wanted but much more than I expected! :)

P.S. My flu and some annoying people tried to ruin this 3rd November, but we won't let them down us ;)

Weird, I am speaking about love.

When I was 8 or so I asked to my parents why most of the songs speak about love, I thought it was stupid and boring!
They tried to explain me the reason but i was too young to understand that.

Few years later, but a lot of time before I had ever fallen in love with someone, I understood what my parents meant while I was listening to a Claudio Chieffo's song. I grew up listening to his songs, probably at that time I had already listened to this particular song, but only that day I thought: "...this is the best love song I have ever heard..."

I want to share with you its lyric, you can listen to a sample of the song music here...

I let you imagine why I like it.

The original lyric is in Italian.

BALLATA dell'AMORE VERO.

Io vorrei volerti bene come ti ama Dio
con la stessa passione, con la stessa forza
con la stessa fedeltà che non ho io.

Mentre l'amore mio
è piccolo come un bambino
solo senza la madre
sperduto in un giardino.

Io vorrei volerti bene come ti ama Dio
con la stessa tenerezza, con la stessa fede
con la stessa libertà che non ho io.

Mentre l'amore mio
è fragile come un fiore
ha sete della pioggia
muore se non c'è il sole.

Io ti voglio bene e ne ringrazio Dio
che mi dà la tenerezza, che mi dà la forza
che mi dà la libertà che non ho io.

English translation, i found it in the "libretto" that comes with the CD.

BALLAD of THE TRUE LOVE.

I would like to love you
as God loves you
with the same passion,
with the sam strenght,
with the same fidelity
that I do not have.

While my love
is small like a child
alone without his mother
lost in a garden.

I would like to love you
as God loves you
with the same tenderness,
with the same faith
with the same freedom
that i do not have.

While my love
is fragile like a flower
it thirsts for rain
and dies without sun.

I love you and for it I thank God
who gives me tenderness
who gives me the strength
who gives me the freedom
that I do not have.


To the one that is fighting for our future :)

Forcing myself to keep my eyes opened!

I already wrote this post in a previous blog where I used to write posts both in English an in Italian, I am closing the English side there and "moving" it on PhotoN Message.

In a previous post I told you how some of those friends and relatives were surprised to "discover", through the picture I was showing them, that there was something of beautiful even where they didn't notice any beauty.
It was very pleasant to see their smiling faces and their surprised eyes. I loved this!

It was during the following months that I realized how easy was to "lose" those "beautiful" details of our reality, an example?

It was the 16th or 17th July 2004, when I was walking in a park in Rapallo (Genoa) and I heard a loud twitter. I looked around for some minutes and at the end I found a very little bird on the street...so I bended on it an tried and after I got surprised by the fact that it was "so small" I tried to take some pictures...It was too dark there so I hadn't been able to take "good picture" but this little bird made me able to notice something else...

As soon as I bended down, the passersby turned curious too and at the sight of the little bird they smiled and went away smiling... I was surprised, because during those minutes I spent to find the source of that twitter I had seen no one else trying to find the source of that sound...
It seemed like, for those people, it was a "too small" detail of the reality to care about.

That day I realized that the simple act to just focus my attention on something, made some one else want to focus on it too and appreciate that detail of our reality.

Reflecting on this event I realized that what happened to those passersby could happen to me too! This scared me a little, I didn't want to be blind, to close my eyes in front of reality!
In order to avoid, as much as I could, this behavior I tried to do my best in forcing myself to look at the world that surrounds me... I am not sure if I can do it often enough, but I am sure I am still trying...

That day, I understood that taking picture was a good way to "force" myself to look for the world (even smallest and hidden) beauty!