The world in a pack of pasta

Sitting outside his balcony, Professor Piergiovanni De Lorenzis was reading a collection of poems by Giuseppe Ungaretti, observing the clear sky with a smile. Retired for several years now, he was a shaved 80-year-old man with wavy gray hair and brown eyes who wore a white shirt with green suspenders and black pants and wore a gray robe to keep from cold. After giving water to the plants he was about to return to the living room because he had guests: he was separated and soon his daughter Vincenza with her children had to arrive to prepare his lunch, since the professor had had an operation on his back and the doctors had advised him absolutely rest. He carefully put the robe down on the chair and went to sit by the table. He rang the bell and the professor went to open the door, welcoming his daughter and greeting his 4-year-old grandchildren Marco and 1-year-old Chiara who brought her inseparable stuffed bunny with her. Vincenza was married to Giacomo Rossani, who worked as a warehouse keeper in a shopping center and since he had the morning shift and would not return home before 17:30 she had decided to bring her children to have lunch together. After Chiara ate her baby food, they had lunch with a plate of spaghetti with sauce, a cutlet and some fruit because the professor wanted to eat in a balanced way and he played with the children until 17:00 because Giacomo was about to go home.

"We're about to go home, dad. Do you need me to do your shopping tomorrow?"

"No thanks. The neighbors' daughter offered to bring me the groceries as soon as her shift at the supermarket finished."

"Okay. Come on children, say hello to grandfather, we have to go home!"

"Hello grandfather!" Marco said and little Chiara greeted him saying "Grandfather!"

The professor went to the bedroom to rest after lunch and after an hour of sleep, he turned on the TV in the living room to watch a comic variety until precisely 20:00 arrived. Veronica Bellini appeared in front of Professor De Lorenzis's door, for her friends Ronny. She was a beautiful 24-year-old girl with bleached blonde hair and a fashion freak who worked as a cashier in a supermarket and had brought the shopping requested by the professor.

"Good evening to you Ronny. Get a glass of apple juice from the fridge if you want, you must be very tired. Tell me how much I owe you for the shopping."

"Thank you professor. Here it is ... as she had requested the mints, olives, bread, tomato sauce and apples. What a fool I am! I was about to forget the dish soap and kitchen paper. This time he saved a bit, some items were on offer this week." Ronny said after handing the receipt to the professor.

"Here's the money, keep the rest. Did you hear the news today? After two days of "on the run" they arrested that fanatic who had beaten a Macedonian boy at the end of his shift, he was envious because he had been fired and did not want a "dirty clandestine" to steal his job."

"I heard it today on the radio while I was working, I breathed a sigh of relief. He is engaged to my best friend from middle school, a really good guy. When I went to see her she was crying like a fountain, but he was already very well. He recovered immediately."

"Ronny, do me a courtesy. Take some packs of pasta from the pantry and bring them here. "The girl took the packages as requested "I did as she asked, but I don't understand the reason for this request."

"Watch carefully. There are different types of pasta on the table: spaghetti, tagliatelle, macaroni, fusilli and rigatoni. They are all different formats, but they all belong to one genre. The pasta. And so the world is made, my girl: there are the Italians, the Macedonians, the Albanians, the Greeks, the Poles, the Japanese, the Egyptians, the Senegalese and so on. Many different nations and languages, but we are all human beings. Except that many do not know it or worse still, they pretend not to know."

"A nice thought, I share it. I was struck by your words." Ronny added incredulously.

"I also recommend that you listen to Depende by Jarabe de Palo. It contains a very interesting verse that goes like this: Let white be white. And that black is black. Let one and one be two. Because the numbers are correct."

"I will certainly do it, professor. Forgive me but now I have to go home. Good evening to you." and she took leave of the professor.After returning home and finishing dinner, Ronny threw himself on the bed to relieve his fatigue. She hadn't erased the professor's words from her mind and without having to repeat it twice, she took the headphones and connected them to her cell phone to find the song suggested by her neighbor. As she listened to the song, she was mesmerized by the depth of the lyrics and the beauty of the music. And she thought that day, that she had earned something that was worth much more than a pair of fashionable boots or a designer handbag: an important lesson in life and respect for others. She thanked the professor deep in her heart and turned off the light to sleep.