25Feb, Day 46, Coincidence?

It’s a gloomy rainy Sunday and I’ve been moping around the apartment all afternoon. I hoped to find someone to go jogging with, but that’s not going to happen today. I spent an hour or more cleaning and then took out the violin for a while. I struggled to think of an interesting song to play, and put it back in the case after just a half hour to catch up on a few journal entries to the beat of Gli Anni.

I received an unexpected package Friday evening. I tore though the padded cardboard to find a seasoned-looking book. It contained a mysterious message printed on the front cover instructing the recipient of this gift to return it to the person they’d received it from if they’d already read it, or to read it in less than 12 days and pass it on to the person they think would benefit most from its message. I was amazed. I don’t believe coincidences happen by chance, and the timing is ripe for this story to return to me. I first read this story in Spanish about 3 years ago. Then I signed the inner cover and gave it to my friend Jimmy as a going away present before I moved to California. Coincidentally, I think he had already read it in its original language: Portuguese, but he was happy to accept it and read it again in his native language, just as I happily accepted this version in English. I’ve been experiencing a wonderful deja vu rereading the story though different sounding words. This is the first book that I have read in 2 languages. I think the Spanish version seemed more mystifying and viscerally poetic – in part because I could not understand every word, whereas the English translation comes across lucid and much more palpable. I blazed though it, and finished the book in less than 5 hours spread over the weekend. Now I’m faced with the task of deciding who to pass it on to.

I ate an apple with peanut butter and cowboyed up to go for a jog in the rain. The city is strangely quiet because there is a moratorium on driving in northern Italy this weekend. Every winter they declare a few days of traffic block for all vehicles that burn gasoline or diesel fuel to try to reduce the pollution around the city. I think this is the first time they’ve extended the ban though the rest of the region. I support this movement and believe these actions are an important step towards a sustainable carbon economy. Bravo Italia!