Looking into the future

Fr. Livio Tonello, director

On July 2019 we remembered the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing (21 July 1969). I was five years old and I couldn’t feel the sense of such an undertaking. I also remember adults using the old Italian saying, “Beware of those who promise to show you the moon in the well”, which means “Beware of those who want you to believe impossible and absurd things with the intention of deceiving you”. I don’t remember if there was some old fable from which this expression originates, but essentially the image is that of a person who makes another one believe that he has the moon in a well, showing the image reflected on the surface of the water. In my simplicity as a child, it was clear to me that it was impossible for the moon to be in a well, because I could see it was in the sky. I could also see it reflected in the dark, deep water, apparently at hand, but not reachable. There are so many possible lessons from this metaphor. Looking at the moon makes you raise your eyes, widens the visual horizon. What a spectacle to contemplate our satellite on clear starry…