QUESTA E’ UNA VECCHIA STORIA
Ci ho sempre pensato su molto e poi un giorno andai a vedere il film “Il favoloso mondo d’Amélie” di Jean-Pierre Jeunet. In questo film c’è una voce narrante che, ad un certo punto, afferma che fallire la propria vita è un diritto inalienabile. Io, nella mia vita, ho conosciuto due o tre persone che, intenzionalmente, hanno fallito la propria vita ed ho sempre provato per loro, se non repulsione, perlomeno fastidio, in quanto pensavo che era troppo facile rintanarsi in un angolo a piangere su se stessi e sul proprio infelice destino, addossando tutta la colpa agli altri. Ma l’affermazione contenuta nel film di Jean-Pierre Jeunet mi fece dubitare delle mie sicurezze.
E’ davvero così? E’ vero che fallire la propria vita è un diritto inalienabile? E poi ho trovato la poesia di Charles Bukowski “Be Kind”.
E voi? Voi che ne pensate?
THIS IS AN OLD STORY
I’ve always thought about it much and, then, one day, I watched the film “Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain” by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. In this film there’s a narrator who, suddenly, states that wasting one’s life is an inalienable right. I have known, during my lifetime, some people who, intentionally, wasted their lives and I found them very irritating since it seemed to me it was too simple to hole up and cry upon oneselves and one’s unhappy destiny, always putting the blame on other people. But the statement contained in the film by Jeunet made me doubt my certainties.
Is it really so? Is it really true that wasting one’s life is an inalienable right?
And then I found the poem by Charles Bukowski “Be Kind”.
And you? What do you think about it?
BE KIND
we are always asked
to understand the other person’s
viewpoint
no matter how
out-dated
foolish or
obnoxious
one is asked
to view
their total error
their life-waste
with
kindliness,
especially if they are
aged.
but age is the total of
our doing.
they have aged
badly
because they have
lived
out of focus,
they have refused to
see.
not their fault?
mine?
I am asked to hide
my viewpoint
from them
for fear of their
fear.
of a deliberately
wasted
life
deliberately
wasted
lives
