When I was a kid, in Italy, we were burdened with tons of homework, oftentimes for the next day. So, smart kids with good grades and thick glasses, would "avvantaggiarsi"on the days with less homework. According to the dictionaries I've consulted, the English translation of "avvantaggiarsi"is "to get a head start", which is not quite the same concept. "Avvantaggiarsi"meant to do some future homework today, so that the burden would be lighter tomorrow.
I didn't like smart kids, and refused to "avvantaggiarmi" like a geek. I always had hopes that the school would burn down, or that there would be a strike on that day. Admittedly, in the Seventies the chances of both were pretty high.
Now that I'm older and, allegedly, wiser, I see the advantages of "avvantaggiarsi". I could write a lot of blog entries when I have the time, and post them when I don't. I could do the same with Twitter or Instagram, right? Of course not. Because in today's speed of information and response, what you thought this morning might not be relevant in the afternoon. Imagine posting on Instagram a picture of an event happened yesterday. Unthinkable.
Of course, a lot of us are catching up with the absurdity of this speed delirium, and have invented a lot of slow things: slow cooking, slow news, and the sweetest I found recently, slow fashion, i.e. making your own clothes. So, renaming things might be an alternative to having to speed up. I could, for instance, be a slow blogger, a slow instagrammer, and do what I like best -- care about content, digest things before I talk about them. In other words, claim my rights to reverie.
I didn't get particularly good grades in school because of my refusal to "avvantaggiarmi", but I read On the Road, Howl, Ken Kesey, I doodled to my heart's content, and watched from the window the passing of seasons, leaves falling, rain and sunshine, in that mental state which has now been renamed "mindfulness", living in the present.
From me to you, your very very slow blogger.
