Marco Michelini

The anti-SARSCoV2 vaccination campaign begins. Everywhere in the world people start to breathe a sigh of relief, they welcome with enthusiasm the vans that carry doses, the first vaccinated people take selfies, smile with their eyes, invite everyone to get vaccinated when they will be called. There are discussions about the different biotechnologies at the basis of the vaccines which start being available. People hope, people make predictions, they line up for their own dose of vaccine…

I have friends who are artists, painters, but not only, who are living a difficult year since the pandemic started. Exhibitions are closed but they don’t receive any state contribution. It is a situation common to many categories of artists and operators around their world. But beyond the economic difficulties, which are very serious for many, they also experience a continuous devaluation of their activities, as if they were marginal individuals in our society.

Starting from one of the points considered fundamental in the Law n.170 of 2010, “relational and emotional diseases” I asked Marta Tropeano, pedagogist, teacher and writer of fairy tales, what role emotions have in learning processes:

“Doubled the cases of depression” … “coming wave of mental illnesses”…

I wonder what these headlines mean. Is this really happening? Does a virus that causes a so severe respiratory distress which is taking millions of people’s breath away all over the world has also the power to cause depression? I wanted to try and think a little differently.

I am a teacher and every day I live relationships with teenagers who, sometimes silently others a bit undisciplend, ask for answers to their deepest needs, often unheard.

It might happened to you to have a feeling of overall discomfort after speaking with a person. However, seeking what it was to make you feel bad, you couldn’t find a valid reason. The person was polite, gentle, they didn’t say one word out of its place.

Is the one we never forget, the saying goes. But maybe that’s not always the case. So many times I have happened to hear, in my work, that it was not considered important, just a trivial adolescent crush, not a serious thing.