Brussels
It was raining in Brussels as well. I wished I could fly to a space station above the clouds and enjoy eternal sunshine.
In front of the cathedral of Saint Catherine I met a priest. I asked him, on the spur of the moment, whether he knew why it always rained. "Il pleut parce que nous pleurons!"
After visiting the cathedral, I called a colleague and invited him out for lunch. As a student he had been renowned for his spontaneity, but he wasn't free and had no inclination to do anything about it. I was disappointed. I tried another colleague. He had told me once that for him career came before friendship. I wanted to know whether he had remained true to himself, so I called him. He had to work and hadn't the time, was his slightly irritated answer.
Living my everyday life, I am like my colleagues. With our hectic schedules, it is almost impossible to escape our professional and family commitments at short notice. Surprises don't happen. Normality has the upper hand over any sudden impulse to break away. I can understand them, my colleagues. But I was frustrated too. I had travelled hundreds of kilometres, I had expected that they would be able to reorganise work and appointments for once. For a whole two hours.
After all these frustrations, a text-message: "I miei 40 anni... Ricomincio da zero, chi sa il futuro sara migliore? R." Renata was a friend of my wife's. I had met her for the first time at her mother's funeral two months ago. She lost her father five years ago. She was an only child. The last two years had been sacrificed to her sick mother. With her mother's death she was free to start a new life.
