The twilight

For many years I sacrificed to my studies my emotional life, my family life, participation in the life of my generation: although I lived in my time, in some ways I didn’t belong to that time. I hardly knew anything about sport, music, songwriters, dancing, the fashions which young people followed, holidays and much else. I had no choice if I wanted to recoup, culturally speaking, the years I had lived with animals “in the wild”. I was prepared to pay any price, to deprive myself of anything in order to attain my goals. For human beings everywhere this should be a sacred, inviolable and inalienable right.

While I was studying in Germany, Dagmar, a teacher I knew, wanted to give me a son, Julian, a child who has turned into a wonderful man. Unfortunately I still had such a yearning to study and  to travel that I didn’t stay there and live with them. However, to the best of my abilities I always did my duty as a positive and affectionate father, that father figure which all children need.

At the age of sixty-nine my craving for knowledge eased, softened, became my friend, so to speak. By now I have found, for better or worse, some answers to the many questions that one winter’s evening long ago my Uncle Carlo stirred up in my mind. I might even have discovered for myself, and I really hope that I have, some answers that he would dearly have liked to have given me but couldn’t. Now that my mind is soothed, now that I have made peace with myself and with the world, I have finally been able to form more lasting, satisfying relationships. In recent years, and for the first time, thanks also to Lorenza, my emotions are enjoying a season of joy, beauty and love.

Nowadays, my walks in the mountains, the respect I feel for nature and my affection for animals all give me great pleasure. As well as teaching languages, which I still enjoy, I hold a course on the art of living at the Università Popolare in Biella. So this is my life today, thanks to numerous twists of fate. And what more could I possibly want?