La Crisalide

No longer a caterpillar, not yet a butterfly, the chrysalis is the symbolic image of transition. Guido Gozzano, a refined poet and lover of chrysalises, dedicates many verses to this creature, aware that its condition is in many ways comparable to that of man. “Do you hear it? Does your heart feel that it is waiting for the hour of flight?” He asks the little insect. Among the many seasons of human life, adolescence often seems to those who experience it to be a time of questions, of uncertainties, of precarious balances, a limbo in which one can get lost. We adults often lack the right words, or perhaps the means, to help those who are “hanging and alone” to live with the serenity and confidence that this is a temporary but necessary condition. You cannot, you must not, avoid the crisis that every moment of growth carries in its womb. This year, when Napoli InCanta has focused on the delicate issue of a correct and healthy affective education, the text seems fresh and relevant.

Salvatore Murru