I also have no real segues for the things I'm going to talk about in this post so I beg your forgiveness in advance.
We
arrived at the airport in Catania, and by bus we then traveled to Palermo,
which served as our home base for the first three days of the trip. Palermo is kind of similar to Naples: lots of
Baroque, of course (which is growing on me) and colorful. However, it’s easily twice the size and overall
to me it felt much more…sad. On the one
hand, it’s pretty cool to see art and architecture from so many different time
periods next to or sometimes literally on top of each other, but on the other
hand it seems that it is quite a heavy burden to bear. Walking down the streets of the Palermo, it
was clear that history is not easily forgotten, and moving on is a time
consuming process. There was something
in the air that served as a constant reminder of something that prevents
belonging, at least completely, to Italy.
But can you really blame these people?
They have thousands of years of difficult, unforgiving and powerful
history that other Italians, not even other southern Italians, can really
relate to or sympathize with. So when
you hear these people identify first and foremost with Sicily rather than with
Italy- can you really blame them? There
is no way it’s easy to legally be bound to a nation when you have two different
histories. And I felt the weight of this
intellectual, spiritual burden most in Palermo.
In the smaller places we visited you could definitely feel how old they were, but the feeling wasn’t as overbearing.
Though I think those picturesque windy, cobblestone streets with ocean views and cannoli probably help.
Italy, as I've mentioned before when talking about Naples, has its own brand of Southern Hospitality, and the Sicilians are some of the friendliest, most hospitable
and most generous people you will ever meet.
Perhaps they feel a duty to make up for their islands’ problems (like,
you know, the mafia), but these are southern Italian characteristics that have
existed for generations. At one restaurant
the proprietor talked with us for almost our whole meal, about Sicily and about
Italy, about himself and about us, and then treated us to almond wine made on
premises. (We asked about ingredients
and process, but he was unwilling to give up the secret). At a small restaurant in Erice, two men who
were sitting at a bigger table got up and sat at a smaller one when I walked in
with a larger group of girls. These are
things that don’t happen just anywhere.
We
saw a lot of Greek ruins in Sicily, and believe me there
is something really humbling about looking up at giant, ancient temples. It’s also sort of depressing. Because I don’t think we (we meaning
currently living human beings) are really doing anything as amazing these
days. Ok, a few individuals are, sure,
and maybe some companies…but entire societies?
No. Not really. Are we building things that are going to
last? And by “things that are going to
last”, I don’t just mean things that won’t fall down. Are we building anything these days that
people from all over the world will flock to thousands of years from now just
to look up at and go “Wow”? I don’t
think so. I don’t know if it’s because
we aren’t capable or if it’s because we just don’t care to- that’s a whole
other conversation in and of itself- but looking at the temples in Segesta
and Selinunte just made me feel kind of
like we as a race are doing a serious disservice to, and seriously insulting,
the people who came before us. Myself
included. In fact, I put myself at the
top of the list. I am the worst. Here I am, receiving this phenomenal (and
phenomenally expensive) education, I am being exposed to some of the oldest and
truest forms of culture there have ever been and will ever be, literally walking
in the footsteps of those who created it, and yet I don’t change myself. I guess I could be even worse, I could get
absolutely nothing out of all of this, and that would be bad. I get a lot out of it. I spent every night in Sicily before going to
sleep deep inside my own head having these intellectual conversations with
myself (I’m not even giving you guys the half of it). And what have I done since getting home? Sleep, upload my pictures to Facebook, and
listen to “All Night Longer” by Sammy Adams maybe a hundred times. (If you're curious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOmvUVDeO0I). And this is why I’m the problem- because I recognize
all of this and I question, but I don’t react accordingly. It’s not that I’m not capable of thinking
deeply- all I ever do is think. That’s
why I don’t sleep. But I don’t do. I don’t act.
I could pick up a book, hell even read some damn Wikipedia articles, on
literally ANYTHING, and it would be a better use of my time not just for my own personal intellectual upkeep
but for the sake of, you know, preparing myself to be a meaningful member of
society. But what do I do? I sit on my ass in front of my computer
refreshing my Twitter feed. Young
people, even smart ones like me who know how to think, who have amazing
professors like the ones in the Smith College Italian Department and who have so
many resources available to them, are intellectually lazy. And regular lazy, too. What’s really bad is that most of the time
when I’m sitting there refreshing my Twitter feed, I’m either thinking about
really interesting, meaningful things (that I should probably write about), or I’m
thinking about all of the other more intellectually useful things I could be
doing. For crying out loud I could even
just go for a jog. At least then when I came
back to wallowing in my intellectual inadequacy I would take up less space
doing so.
All
in all, Sicily is the most amazing, most beautiful and most unforgettable place
I’ve ever been. I was consistently made
speechless, at times almost brought to tears, by the sheer natural beauty of
the island. That beauty is enhanced by a
people whose generosity and sincerity are unrivaled, whose cuisine is
unbeatable, and whose passion for life and living, despite their history, cannot be
eroded.
