Life (ENG)

Life

Those who say that we leukocytes are destroyers of life... well, that is not entirely an accurate definition.
It's true: we are warriors from birth. We have always been taught to fight to the bitter end, to use all the weapons we have with the aim of taking out our enemy, anyone who wants to harm the cells of this world. We take life away from bacteria, from those who want to make the body into which we are born a world of death, and that is why many good-hearted cells look at us with suspicious eyes, always fearful that one day we may come to harm them as well.
In truth, this is not the case.
We were born to protect this body; it's our job to defend every form of life that populates this world, starting from the tiniest one that exists, so that it can mature into a beautiful and strong cell.
We are not the bringers of death. At least, not towards our fellows.

Although I had always been fully aware of the meaning of my role, I have been able to understand it better since the cancer incident. In those moments of terror, I realized that the seemingly ruthless way I deal with bacteria was nothing, not even a small part of it, compared to the hell that rushed onto the streets and neighborhoods. A true demon has come into this world...
... no. It didn't come, it was born: it was one of us, born for the purpose of destroying us.
And, suddenly, life turned into death. Those brief moments of happiness we were still learning about were taken away by a ruthless creature: gestures and words of affection were erased in an instant, among bombs that rained down from the sky and innocent cells barbarously slaughtered.
You, too, were among those victims... and suddenly I, too, felt as if I was dying. You, of all cells, gave me back my life after I lost it to a terrible battle with bacteria: that is why, when I was able to recognize you in that vast pool of blood, for a moment I felt like I was suffocating.
Perhaps, for a moment, I too died with you.
What would have been the point of living in a world without you?
What meaning would there have been if you, who until the last moment, who were finally aware of the meaning of your work, and who clung to life with desperation, had died and I still had not?
What would have been the point of living alone in a broken world, without even a glimmer of hope for the future?

But in the end a small miracle happened.
Little by little life returned to this world, and the desolation that had come after the defeat of cancer gave way to peace. This body listened to our cries, and now it too wants to continue living with us.
Since that moment new cells have come into existence... including a little "you" who, like so many others, knows nothing about that terrible past we faced.
You, simply... live.
In another form, in another look, however, you are here, and you live, as you wished in your last moments of your life.
Thanks to the law that rules this world, you have been reborn, becoming that long-awaited hope that your eyes wished to see.
Thus, I promised myself that I would protect that little life form that looks like you: he and his friends will know about what happened before they were born, they will listen to our stories as if they were tales long gone, and I'm sure they will never experience that endless nightmare that brought this world one step closer to death.
He will learn the meaning of life, of this wonderful life that our eyes are admiring day after day, because I'll be the one to teach him, while protecting him and always standing by his side.
Because, now, life has not ceased to exist in this world. And I, too... thanks to him, thanks to you... have come back to life.