Sulmona, Italy, in the Abruzzo province is the "confetti" capital of the world. Sulmona is very close to Corfinio, where Concettina Di Nino, daughter of Antonio Di Nino and Maria Di Clemente from Roccacasale, and Salvatore Ranelli, son of Giovanni Ranelli and Maria Trotta of Paterno/Celano near Avezzano, were married in the Chiesa di San Pellino in 1921.
Concettina would be very surprised to know that two of her great grandaughters are in need of confetti this summer! Jordan
almonds, candy coated in pastel colors, are the best. The confetti should be arranged in odd numbers in unique decorations.
They are a festive remembrance of a joyous occasion to come.
Another joyous occasion was the soccer/futbol score of Italy over Germany 2-0 in the last minute of a double overtime. I was estatic when my favorite player Alessandro del Piero finally got subbed in the game preparing for the shoot out. He immediately executed a corner kick that assisted a goal to make it 1-0 and then scored again for the final of 2-0. Italy now plays France Sunday for the campione del la mundo. Viva la Italia!
And another joyous occasion was an engagement, and not between the soccer teams. T-shirts, like bumper stickers, billboards or personalized license plates always seem to have something to say, which is either easy to get on the first read, or gives one something to ruminate over. I found this t-shirt that says "Getting engaged seriously damages your health." Does it come with a Surgeon General's warning. What does it really mean? Should I be worried because a loved one is now in this state of myopic bliss, endorphins flying not just high, but allover the place? Is love blind? Married people are supposed to live longer. Unfortunately, filing taxes costs more, but can't two live more cheaply than one? Is living together before tying the knot a good idea? And how long is a good time to live together? What do you have, after years of cohabitating,if the well runs dry? There are no laws to protect either's rights, or maybe common law does exist? After seven years, one is a "common law spouse." There's still time...to do what? Cut your losses and run? The Runaway Bride didn't run away in the long run. I just realized this post could really be television's author Carrie Bradshaw's column/book for "Sex In The City." The series is probably about 6 seasons old and the reruns are even better second time around. They are so hilarious and provide 30 minutes of escapism at the end of a day. I know, one could tape them, or tivo them and watch at one's will, but seriously, why would you go to all that bother when they package them in DVDs to rent or buy? My chiropractor buys the season of DVDs for a present for his wife. We didn't buy premium cable channels so we weren't able to watch it on cable but now it's on a low cost cable and they show it at prime time, so of course, babies are getting their sex education before kindercare, pre school or kindergarten. It's not enough they see it live and live it, now they won't have to wait until puberty when they offically get a book about it. And that's assuming they'll be able to read. Reading is almost becoming obsolete, at least anything more that text messaging. Somewhere someone just discovered an iconic language. Wow! Maybe another Rosetta Stone! I always did love hieroglyphs or runestones or any pictographic writing. See how difficult it is to keep up with stream of conciousness writing? I don't mean to insult your intelligence, it's just that my truly honest closest friends can never follow my eclectic ramblings from my cluttered mind. Spatial abstract thinkers are great, but when it comes out in language, there's often a problem in extrapolation. Those concrete, sequential learners are very clear in communicating to others, usually in such a SLOW, baby step way, that spatial abstracts already have figured out where the other is going, and finishes the words for them because they are bursting with such speed that it is aggravating and a waste of time to have to wait for the other's words to actually come to fruition. Like the rabbit and the hare.
Everyone that knows me wonders how the newly engaged would survive with me as a mother-in-law. I say watch The Big, Fat Greek Wedding movie. If you're marrying Italian, you marry The Family, a mob, but not The Mob. Are all families dysfunctional? What does it take to survive? That which does not kill you only makes you stronger? I thought an apple doesn't fall far from the tree? If you know better, can you change your destiny, or fate? Or do you repeat the sins of your elders? Is it genetics or environment? You become what you worship. Married couples supposedly start looking like each other, and even their pets.
To be continued...engagements.
A post script, or digression if you please: what is love? Leo Buscaglia is definitely an authority on it, he teaches a college credited class on it. Oops, that's assuming
that an education makes you an authority. Mea culpa. Arrogance is a sin, is it not?, As is pride. What did the Greeks say about hubris? Literary snob, pompous fool. Who said, "Me doth think he doth protest too much." Is it in Shakespeare's Hamlet? Or Macbeth. Take Shakesspeare. That writer knew his audience. He wrote on so many levels that he could connect with all. He had something for everyone, then and now. He had food for the groundlings and gourmet food for the intellectuals, but he knew for whom he wrote, that to have everyone get something out of it, it had to connect. The harder it was to extrapolate from, the smarter you had to be. So why would someone show off one's intelligence? If one was really smart, one wouldn't have to. Language is powerful. Words are carefully chosen for the occasion, tailored to the occasion. Pride goeth before destruction. He who climbs the highest has the greatest fall. You had me at hello. Love is a growing thing. It has to be nurtured and fed, like an ego It needs postive attention and feedback. It should never be destructive or humiliating or competitive. It can never reach its potential. It can grow ad infinitum, but it needs the freedom to grow, or it will wither and die. It should not
be possessive, which means that the one you love is not an object to have, or control, or denigrate, or subjugate, or crush, or belittle, or humiliate. The one you love is human, and human love is not platonic love. Spiritual love is even higher in the hierarchy, it is God-like. And when one reaches that state of enlightenment you will know. I still go back to Mark Twain's line, "Faith is believing what you know ain't so." We don't really "know," so we have to "beleive," and in order to believe, we have to have faith, and man, if you don't have faith, you don't have anything! Faith is trust, and if you are too insecure to trust, you'd better get help getting it. Trust in love, it will never fail. Metal chastity belts and female genital mutilation were control freaks's efforts, but the real truth is, words hurt the most, especially from the ones you love the most. Be judicious with what one says, because it can't be taken back, and usually no amount of apology is really going to remove the indelible stain. Love with abandon, but physical love does not hold a candle to the love of the mind. Frances William Bourdillon said, "The mind has a thousand eyes, and the heart but one."