THE HUMAN HEART HAS NOT CHANGED

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

This afternoon I took a walk around Lake Pergusa (Sicily), the mythical place where Hades abducted Kore. I had a look at the hills surrounding the lake and recollected a book on pedagogy I had read long ago. It said:  “Human beings have only made technological advances, but the human heart has made no progress.”

Looking at the hills at sunset and imagining the nymphs and Kore gathering flowers along the lush shores of the lake, I tried to figure out those who lived in these same hills millennia ago. They used stone tools, while we use appliances. They lived in caves, while we live in comfortable apartments with electricity and running water. But were their hearts different from ours? What did the Stone Age people think when they watched the sun go down? Did they have a sense of family and love for their children? Did they have the idea of God?

If we consider the pre-Socratic philosophers and the poets that lived thousands years ago, like Sappho, Homer, and many others, we will see that they are still relevant. The reason is just one: The human heart and soul have made no progress, nor can they!

Ettore Grillo author of these books:

– November 2: The Day of the Dead in Sicily

– A Hidden Sicilian History

– The Vibrations of Words

– Travels of the Mind

http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

MAYFLIES IN LAKE PERGUSA (SICILY)

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

Today, I took a walk around mythic Lake Pergusa. Once, it was swarming with dragonflies, butterflies, and mayflies, and the croak of the frogs was audible. These days, things are different. However, this morning, while walking near the water, to my surprise, I spotted a few mayflies.

With me was also my son who had never seen a mayfly.

“A mayfly, also called an ephemera or dayfly, is an insect that lives for a very short time, it is born in the morning and dies that same day. What would you do if you were a mayfly with only one day of life?” I asked my son.

“I would spend my day of life sending petitions to the rulers of the world, asking them not to pollute the earth, so that mayflies can survive. And what about you, Father?”

I replied, “I would spend my only day of life praying to God and asking him to make me live one more day, and then another day, and then another day, until the end of time,” I replied.  

Ettore Grillo author of these books:

– November 2: The Day of the Dead in Sicily

– A Hidden Sicilian History

– The Vibrations of Words

– Travels of the Mind

http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

LIFE AND DEATH IN A SICILIAN CEMETERY AT NIGHT

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

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While we were climbing the stairway to my tomb, an owl with a mouse in its claws fluttered its wings towards a cypress tree. Life was suddenly over for the little rodent. That is life! It is based upon violence. Without killing, carnivores cannot survive. The fish in the sea must eat the small ones so as not to depopulate the oceans. The eagles in the sky must bring some small animals to their nests. Otherwise, their species becomes extinct. There is a fragile balance in nature. The life of one being passes through the death of another. Once, a Jehovah’s Witness said to me that there will come a time on Earth when lions will live peacefully together with lambs; there will be no death, diseases, and violence. When will this time come? Surely not in a world like that in which we are living now. It would be another Earth.

What about human violence? There was a great philosopher named Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel who considered war unavoidable. Was he right? I can just say that wars have never ceased since the world started. Man kills just like animals. There is not much difference between animals’ violence and man’s violence. Both of them kill not only to survive, but also to protect their territories, because of hate, jealousy, and even just for the sake of killing.

At the end of the stairway, we turned left and arrived at my tomb.

This is an excerpt from November 2: The Day of the Dead in Sicily

Ettore Grillo author of these books:

– November 2 The Day of the Dead in Sicily
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
– Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

THE LOST BEACH OF ERACLEA MINOA IN SICILY

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

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About fifteen years ago, I visited the beautiful beach of Eraclea Minoa. At that time, I was attracted by the broad sand beach and the pinewood by it.
Today, I came to Eraclea Minoa again, but to my surprise, the beautiful wide sand beach didn’t exist anymore.
It seems that the cause of the disappearance of the beach is just one: man’s greed for money. In fact, they took sand from the beach to build buildings and altered the natural course of the river.

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I think we’d better ponder on the lost beach of Eraclea Minoa. Now and then, beautiful nature disappears from Earth: a strip of rainforest, a glacier, a vegetable or animal species, and so on.
I don’t deny the importance of money. But I just want to say that the most important value is life on Earth and then money or other things.
While I was walking on the shore, I enjoyed what humans cannot destroy easily: The  unique Capo Bianco of Eraclea Minoa, a white promontory at the end of the pinewood.
I feel sorry for the disappearance of beautiful nature because of human greed.
Ettore Grillo, author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind

http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo