“Unity is strength”, we are not sure when this proverb was born, but beyond how, when and why it was born, there is an absolute truth, battles fought alone are difficult to win.
Residing in the same municipality also means being part of the same community; However, it is one thing to be part of it, and another thing to feel part of it.
Feeling like a community is something that not everyone makes their own, for example feeling useful, important to each other within that “thing” called the city, in sharing its problems, in making oneself available to the other, in fighting together, in being one thing and in having mutual trust, certain that the problems, certain needs and objectives, today of one, tomorrow who knows, could be satisfied and achieved, sooner and better, with the commitment of all, working as a team.
“Now we either rise again as a team or we will give in inch by inch, one play by another, until we are defeated. We are in hell now, gentlemen. Believe me. And we can stay there, get slapped, or we can fight our way to the light. We can scale the walls of hell inch by inch.” Al Pacino, speech from the locker room in “Any Given Sunday”
However, various factors often intervene to make what might seem obvious questionable, including selfishness and the famous “equal evils”.
Selfishness comes out when a problem doesn’t affect us directly and we think it will never affect us, “who cares?”
The “pari mali” instead comes into play when we have to turn our attention, to claim something, to someone close to us, be it a relative, a friend or a political group.
In both cases, we rely on another widely used proverb: “cu avi amici, è francu di guai”.
But as in all things there is always the famous “but” who cares.
But are we sure that what doesn’t even touch us remotely today will instead see us as protagonists tomorrow and that that friend, whom we loved, respected and trusted, in our time of need, reciprocates with the same affection and knows how to help us and meet us halfway?
But are we sure that instead that friendship is, or was, only linked to your own gain, and once you have achieved your objective you no longer consider us that friend who would always put himself at our disposal if we ever needed him?
Here, many still believe in friendship, the true one, the one based on pure feelings, the one that does not betray expectations and that lets us sleep soundly, knowing that we always have someone to count on, not necessarily to solve a problem, but also simply to tell us “how are you”.
I think you can count friends like that on one hand.
It is no coincidence that many people, who, due to various vicissitudes that life has in store, find themselves alone in times of need or with only a couple of dear friends next to them, who are only interested in you and not in who you are or who you were.
If instead we started to think that friends, not friends or simple acquaintances, by forming a group, we could all together face and resolve those problems that today do not affect us personally but which probably do tomorrow, perhaps things would be better.
Not to be underestimated is that in the eyes of those who decide for us, we would be seen and listened to with more attention, because let us always remember that unity is strength. Ad Maiora
