la provvidenza non ha limiti

providence knows no boundaries. those were the words of Gianni Agnelli, former owner and President of FIAT, Juventus Football Club, Ferrari, and one of the Italian all-in-all icons of the 20th century. a man that showed that boundaries are out there just to be surpassed and reset closer and closer to the edge of impossible, only to be yet once more outrun. and not only in what regards providence, but also in matters like sport, communication, business, art, forward thinking and, well, fashion.
Considered one of the best dressed men in the world in the 20th century, l'avvocato, as Esquire magazine says: 'is the originator whose style has been imitated more times than Redford, Newman and McQueen combined.' he was (and continues to be, long after having passed away) a fashion icon in a country where it is by now, I gather, pointless to mention how important the ideas of design and style are. 
although his suits and shirts were of top quality, tailored especially so as to meet each and every one of his demands, he stood out mainly by how he made use of the small details. the accessories. considered by many quite an eccentric character for wearing his wristwatch over the sleeve of his shirts, he answered back that he was far too busy to lose any precious moment by having to check the time unrolling his cuff every now and then. he appeared at highly important meetings wearing his tie completely askew, having its thinner back side (at that time in the 70s and 80s, at least) way longer than the front one. he used to match his bespoke suits with rugged hiking boots, even if that could have been but a solution to a leg injury he had suffered in a driving accident earlier in life. he would also unbutton the cuffs of his suit jackets in a successful attempt to catch the eyes. altogether, simply a delightful array of displays of what Italians have made an art of in the field of fashion: sprezzatura - making the very difficult look extremely easy. exactly how Gianni Agnelli's entire life was.

it takes a lifetime to understand lives

no man ever steps in the same river twice;
for it is not the same river, and he is not the same man.(Heraclitus)


learning from lifetime studies does not stop until the lives have been fully lived - and not even then, because archives of prospective data are an invitation and an opportunity to go back and ask new questions time and time again, even after the people who so generously provided the answers are gone.
the Grant Study (originally called the Harvard Longitudinal Study, and then the Harvard Grant Study of Social Adjustments) received its now-official name in 1947 - the Harvard Study of Adult Development - and is a longitudinal prospective study. it began in 1938 as an attempt to transcend medicine's usual preoccupation with pathology and learn something instead about optimum health and potential and the conditions that promote them. the first subjects were carefully chosen sophomores from the all-male Harvard classes of 1939, 1940, and 1941, who took part in an intensive battery of tests and interviews. that first group was joined by sophomores from the next the Harvard classes, resulting in a final cohort of 268 men. the original intention was to follow these healthy and priviledged men for fifteen or twenty years, supplementing the intake data from time to time with updates. the plan was realized, and more. almost seventy-five years later, the Grant Study still, remarkably goes on. we're asking different questions now that the founders asked when the Study began. of course the participants are no longer the college sophomores they once were; those who are still with us are very old men indeed. time has called many of the beliefs of those days into question, and some much more recent ones, too. how long our current conclusions will hold up we cannot know. but the Study's greatest contributions give meaning to the extraordinary generosity, patience and candor of the men who exposed their entire lives in the interests of science.
the absoluteness of the Study's demonstration that adult development continues long after the adolescence, that character is not set in plaster, and that people do change. even a hopeless midlife can blossom into a joyous old age. the Study's identification and charting of involuntary coping mechanisms has given us at once a useful clinical tool, a route to empathy for initially unlikable people, and a powerful predictor of the future. 

excerpts from the book Triumphps of Experience by George E. Vaillant

                   the most important contributor to joy and success in adult life is love

my fridge

is cooler than yours

check it out

#don'tkeepitallinside

my body is a cage

îmi este trupul închisoare

ce nu mă lasă să dansez

cu cea pe care o visez

dar mintea nu are hotare

îmi simt brațele gratii rare

zăbrele roz ce mă opresc

să o ating, să o iubesc

dar vorbele știu să zboare

stau pe o scenă în picioare

înconjurat de frică și mut

piesa nu are nici final, nici început

dar mă aplaudă cu toții în picioare

trăiesc acum o epocă în care

negrul e soare arzător

și totuși formele apar ușor

chiar dacă limba mea dispare

trăiesc acum în vremuri care

nu au nume, glas sau față

și deși frica mă ține în viață

inima bate lipsită de vigoare

corpul îmi este închisoare

luăm mereu ceea ce ni s-a dat

iar simplul fapt că tu ai și uitat

nu va aduce niciodată o iertare

trăiesc acum în zile care

râd

atunci când eu dansez

cu cea pe care o visez

dar mintea mea nu moare

lasă-mi sufletul ușor să zboare

lasă-mi trupul să se piardă în zare...

liniște

azvârl pe coala imaculată cuvinte pline de praf
care au obosit să-și tot aștepte pronunțarea
și, resemnate, s-au așezat pe podea
în anticamera lui acum.

cotrobăi cu nerăbdare prin cotloane de amintiri
pentru a redescoperi ritmul viu al cântecului
din visul trăit mai clar ca multe realități
în noaptea înstelată a copilăriei.

îți arunc fâșii de zâmbete dezbrăcate de măști
înspre priviri pline de poteci neștiute,
de miros de primăveri neîncepute
și de fotografii alb-negru.