The discovery of patience

This article is published in number 52 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until January 5, 2021

“Dad, can you tell me the 2020 story before going to sleep?”
“Yet? Always that? But don’t you ever get tired of hearing the same story, Palletta? ».
“Yes daddy, please, once again!”
“Okay. So »:« In 2020, mom and I didn’t know each other yet. It was a very strange year: difficult, tiring, very sad for many. But it was important, because it was the year we stopped making good resolutions – which would have failed as much as it is in the destiny of good intentions – and we began to discover the present.

And we found that in the present there are a lot of interesting things, but you have to be careful and pay attention to them. In 2020 we began to understand the importance of patience, which we had always underestimated, indeed, to tell you all, Palletta, patience seemed a bit like a thing for losers, old fools or uninteresting people, instead as you know today well that’s cool. And it was precisely in 2020 that we began to realize how much small things matter, indeed, it was then that we understood that almost almost matter more than anything.
And it was in 2020 that we began to do with what is, and to discover that doing with what is can give a lot of satisfaction, and that it is smarter to appreciate what there is than to think about what is not there. ‘is, as we did before. 2020, Palletta, was the year in which many of us understood, who instinctively and who by studying and reflecting well, that on this Earth – as you now know very well – we are all connected: men, plants and animals. And that the destiny of some always concerns that of the others as well.
And it was in 2020 that we discovered the importance of prudence, yes, the very word that rhymes with patience, and that as patience had seemed boring, instead it is beautiful and makes you feel good. In 2020 we all discovered the importance of rigor and precision, which you know well today. To those of us who had not yet realized its fascination, it was evident that rigor and precision could also save lives, as well as be useful to us in a thousand other things.
And above all, Palletta, and this was the most difficult thing of all, in 2020 we realized that even if we were prudent, patient, rigorous and precise, we could still end up in trouble. Shit happens, the Americans say. Así es la vida.
But if unpleasant things happen when you have done everything possible to make sure they don’t happen, you feel less foolish, don’t you, Palletta? ».

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