A tragedy, the one that occurred in the Maldives on May 14th, which it also leaves its mark on those who are alive and emotionally linked to one of the victims of the scuba diving. The 22 year old Giorgia Sommacal it was one of them. Her boyfriend, Federico Colombo, 26, wrote a long letterpublished by The 19th Centurywhich is a hymn to love but also a reflection on precariousnesson the limited time we are given to live and on what really matters and keeps us alive.
Once again it is the voice of a young man that makes us reflect. «The loss of Giorgia and Monica (Giorgia’s mother, ed.) taught me something that perhaps I couldn’t really understand before: nothing in life is taken for granted», he writes in the letter. «We are so used to it to the presence of people, to daily gestures, to words spoken distractedly, which we often forget their true value. Then comes an absence, and suddenly you realize how important even the smallest things were: a smile, a call, a laugh for no reason, even shared silences».
The loss of a loved one raises an awareness and an awareness that were not there before and were taken for granted. And a new look at the present: «I’ve learned that we need to be more grateful for the present, because it’s the only thing we really have», Federico writes again to the Ligurian newspaper. «We must live without always waiting for the right moment, without putting off what makes us happy. We should have the courage to love more, to say what we feel, to hug tightly the people we love and to enjoy every moment, even those that seem trivial or stupid.”
Memory and new awareness are intertwined with reflections on the meaning of life, on what is essential for living: «For this reason today I believe that living truly means being there: with the heart, with the soul, with sincerity», the young man writes again. «It means laughing without fear, getting excited, doing crazy things, creating memories, forgiving, letting go of what weighs on you and holding on to what really matters. Life is a fragile and immense gift at the same time. And perhaps the best way to honor it is to share it with those who know how to love us sincerely, with those who remain, with those who manage to give value to our presence before it becomes a memory.”
The densest words come when he summarizes the meaning of life in love: «The fundamental problem of humanity for 2000 years has remained the same… loving each other. Only now it has become more urgent, much more urgent, and when today we still hear that we must love each other, we know that we don’t have much time left now. We must hurry, let’s hurry to love, we always love too little and too late, let’s hurry to love, because at the end of life we will be judged on love, because there is no wasted love and because there is no greater emotion than feeling when we are in love that our life depends totally on another person, that we are not enough for ourselves, and that all things, even the inanimate ones (…) suddenly when we look at them they are charged with human meaning and fascinate us, move us, why? Because they contain a premonition of love (…) and because love matches the meaning of all things: happiness».
They are simple but profound words, learned from a painful “lesson” of life. A young woman who dies in a tragic accident, the hasty maturation of a young man who faces life and discovers its meaning following the loss of his girlfriendwhich had «a particular light and a sweetness that cannot be explained. Always present and capable of making you feel important.” Words that question us too on the meaning of our days, often opaque due to the lack of a clear compass that guides us and that only love can make bright.
