TO twelve years, after receiving the best gift in the world – on a par with the bicycle – that is, my first typewriter, I didn’t have clear ideas about my future. But I discovered that I really loved typing. Immediately, with six sheets of carbon paper, I created the “Garden Newspaper”six copies (plus the original for me) to distribute to friends: jokes, crosswords, riddles and funny stories.
At fourteen, typing the research for the eighth grade exam on my grandfather’s electric typewriter, it was clear to me that nothing was as pleasant as typing lightly on the keys, accompanying the thought that obediently took shape on the white sheet of paper and trying to do it even with my eyes closed, like an inspired pianist.
I liked the tick-tock, the hand that opened like a spider to embrace the entire keyboard, the electronic buzz of the machine, the concentration and the solitude. I liked the act of typing and being immersed in that act and I still do.
Then I would have gone a little further, I would have given content to that form, understood that I prefer written to oral, listening rather than speaking, asking questions rather than giving answers, snooping around, observing and then telling by choosing the words. But the primary pleasure was instinctive, physical, almost a reunion. Like a fish finding its water.
Danda Santini director of “iO Donna” (photo by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert).
This is why I am always attentive, in interviews, to the question “what did you like to do as a child?”. Stylists often spied on mothers’ dresses and sketched new ones, actors organized family performances, dancers discovered the enchantment of the stage early, athletes seemed born to move easily: everyone found natural fulfillment in childhood activities.
And it doesn’t just apply to the limelight: engineers disassembled and reassembled objects to understand how they worked, yesterday the craftsman loved to play patiently and concentrated, those who deal with economics were at ease in the dance of numbers and today find themselves in the perfect completeness of a world where the numbers add up , the teacher, still in love with the subject that sparked his spark as a young student, transmits the same passion to the kids.
Which doesn’t end: a great director like Woody Alleninterviewed by Paola Piacenza for I WomanThat As a child he dreamed of being a European directortoday, at almost 88 years of age, he finally presents an entirely French film of his.
The first typewriter (illustration by Cinzia Zenocchini).
Whether juggling combs and brushes in a hairdressing salon or flying high in an astronaut suit, whether working behind the scenes or in the spotlight, that you have the opportunity to transform what touched your heart as a child into your life’s workor whether it is a moment of escape in free time, which is difficult for a childish attitude to betray.
“That thing over there”, where you felt good and which was good for you, resists. Even when you risk being repetitive and out of fashion for others and for the world, perhaps outdated, being a fish swimming in its own water is a priceless feeling.
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