LA BELLA ITALIA 
Marcello and Stella were sitting at a small outdoor pizzeria in Naples, Italy. They were sipping a Cappuccino while waiting for their Pizza Margarita to arrive.
Marcello asked Stella, ‘Can I read you the Introduction to my presentation, the one I’ll be giving when we arrive back in the US?’
‘Yes, of course,’ she replied.
He began, ‘I imagine, we’ve all seen a scene like this image in a book, be it on history, travel or cooking, on a website or anywhere else that wanted to romanticise an emotion associated with the exotic, love, holidays, imbibing wine, gastronomy, or crammed living. We may not have visited a geographic location with such a street but, we’ve seen pictures. It can represent many a village throughout southern Europe to England as far as the south of Scotland at Hadrian’s Wall.
The Romans who had conquered all of Italy, Sicily and Sardinia were, as the Roman Empire, an unparalleled force from late 290 BCE to 235 AD. They ruled not only the afore-mentioned places but also parts of North Africa, Egypt, heading East to the Mesopotamian region (modern day Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey), and back westwards to Greece, Romania and parts of modern Bulgaria.
And then, they collapsed, not only were they defeated, but they were also annihilated as a power. They disappeared. And their fall started with a small tribe of Germanics defeating them.
All mighty forces of the past eventually lost their position of power or died out and we started to see the development of countries as we know them today. Even some respected countries of now such as England, Spain, Portugal, Holland, and France lost most of their territories and downgraded as forces of colonization and global control.
India is another old civilization from at least 6000 BCE that has had a drop in its strength but is now recovering. This salvage is happening because they never lost sight of what is important in the development of the self from within. External forces may come and go as controlling agents but, if the basic ethos of a nation of billions stays in its integrity, only temporary settlement by another power and resultant poverty can temporarily derail it. Even if the damage was catastrophic.
We can go even further back to the Lemurian and Atlantis civilizations that have totally vanished without a definitive trace. Although they were scientifically advanced even by today’s standards, they disappeared.
There is no country or national group in our modern world that is as powerful as the Roman Empire was. We can argue that now we have greater technology that is more dangerous than what the Romans had but, it needs to be remembered, for those days, that ethnic group had the latest technology and skills over the hundreds of tribes they vanquished.
They were also incredible strategists, a skill which most leaders today lack.
If one wants to make a comparison, which is always fraught with danger, for their time, this Empire was mightier than any power today. It was a true superpower.
Wouldn’t you think, leaders of countries today would heed the quote, ‘History repeats itself’?’
Marcello stopped reading. ‘What do you think?’
‘Wow, that’s a great start, an intriguing start,’ Stella said with enthusiasm.
‘You don’t think it’s too dry, too dull for readers to want to read my Report to the end and attend my presentation?’ he questioned.
‘No, I was totally engaged. I’d forgotten how vast that Empire was at the time. When you consider the average soldier went on foot, thousands and thousands of miles, provisions were loaded on horses or elephants and they had to cross mountains as high as the Alps, in all weathers, with only the guys in charge riding on steeds. It’s staggering,’ she replied to encourage him.
‘I think, I’ll include that information of yours, it’ll make great visuals,’ Marcello said and began writing.
They both worked as freelance journalists in Silicon Valley, the traditional hub of technological innovation. They had been newly appointed by two of the heads, Adam and Jane, to broaden the perspective of employees as their creativity had dulled and it was lagging behind “lesser” countries.
Nevertheless, Marcello and Stella were still trying to justify the need for their skills amongst the geeks who were only interested in the next nano bit of technology or AI. This type of historical and, human interest information hadn’t yet filtered to them on a base level as being useful for daily productivity.
However, there was a small group of men and women who had arrived from India who were doing inspiring work. They were serious participants of Indian yogic training, true yoga practices that took into account the five yogic dimensions of the body. So, Adam and Jane felt there had to be something in this. A shift in mindset and mental flexibility was needed from predominantly using the left brain, to a balance with right brain and spiritual, yogic integration. Add to this, heart-felt thinking and living.
When they returned to Silicon Valley, Marcello gave his presentation aided by Stella. Thunderous applause was their reward.
‘Hey, I remember us learning stuff like that at school,’ said one of the male participants, ‘That Ancient History lesson was one of my favourites.’
‘Wow, I never knew the world was like that back then,’ said another, ‘They sure had guts and didn’t let anything stop them. What an exciting life,’ enthused another male colleague.
‘I just loved your talk, I feel so energised,’ said a woman.
‘Me too,’ added another.
And so, the comments flowed. The Indian employees came to them and, thanked them for what they said about their country.
Adam and Jane were thrilled with the way the presentation and post comments went. ‘We can foresee positive changes happening. Well done,’ said Jane.
‘Yes, well done,’ agreed Adam.
Marcello and Stella thanked them both. When everyone left and they had packed up their equipment, Marcello said, ‘How about a Cappuccino, and then a Pizza Margarita at the Pizzeria Napoli down the road to celebrate?’
‘Sì, sì, signore, for old time’s sake,’ replied Stella.
‘No, for new time’s sake.’ With that, Marcello went on bended knee and asked, ‘Stella, will you marry me? Will you do me the honour of being my wife?’
Spontaneously, she laughed and replied, ‘That looks so cute. Yes, Marcello, I would love to be your wife. I will marry you.’ Marcello rose, took Stella in his arms and they kissed. Releasing her, he asked, ‘Pizza time?’ ‘Absolutely, I’m famished,’ she replied. They left the building went out into the almost deserted street and crisp evening air. Arm in arm they strode in the direction of Pizzaria Napoli. Both were beaming.
Looks like La Bella Italia worked her charm again.
However, according to Rudolf Steiner, there are twelve senses and, it’s important to develop and use as many of these senses as possible because each sense reveals another aspect of our sensory reality.
I was born in Vienna, Austria. When I was 2.5 years, we moved to Paris before migrating to Australia, 4.5 years later. The varied cultural experiences I had till that age developed in me a love of people, their norms, habits and languages. As a migrant child, I mixed with even more nationalities and my love of language learning and people was cemented.
I self-published an Historical Fiction, a book on ADHD drug-free solutions and several on self-help. Finally, I moved into anthologies of short stories to inspire and relay life messages for the reader. Sometimes humans speak, other times, animals have words of wisdom. These books have been uploaded onto Amazon and Kindle.
Music is a passion and I’m re-acquainting myself with my piano. I also loved playing the
trumpet and learning the guitar but, time was an issue. Now I also play keyboard with headset on, when I want to play at odd hours of the night or early morning.