The content(edness) calendar-Day 21

“And thence we came forth to see again the stars”.-Inferno, Canto XXXIV by Dante Alighieri

The Divine Comedy basically describe Dante’s travel through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, with the aim to find God.

The Inferno book ends with this quote “E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle”, that translate as “and thence we came forth to see again the stars” – So after everything he went through, during his way across hell, he was still thinking that the light was there, he had hope, and finally he looked at the stars again.

It is easy to feel discouraged looking at the news: a new strain of the virus, some businesses had to close down, and the number of cases doesn’t seem to go down; the only thing we can do is to be responsible, do our best to protect each other and try to help when we can.

I want to focus on the acts of kindness we saw in the last few months: thousands and thousands of volunteers signing up to help their communities, supermarkets creating “elderly hours” to protect the most vulnerable shoppers, people have been sewing masks, ski clubs have donated goggles, and so on.

I know it is hard, but I want to believe that kindness always prevails, no matter how things appear. Kindness and compassion is all we need now, it is not a coincidence that the Paradise book ends with “l’amor che move il sole e le altre stelle” , that means “love that moves the Sun and the other stars”