I Am From Rome And I Am Latino
Like other words, Latino has come to signify something else. Latino is the Spanish word for Latin. Latins were the Italic people living in a region called Latium, now in Italian : Lazio.
The word Latium comes from the adjective Latum, which means wide. Latium is a comparative and means wider. The landscape of the region widens toward the Tyrrhenian sea from the center of the Italian peninsula where the Appennine mountain chain runs. So Latium (wider) was the appropriate word. And the inhabitant of Latium were Latins and the language spoken was Latin, and Rome became the main city.
I am from Rome and I am Latino. I found out instead that in America Latino or Latinos are people of Hispanic countries, Spain and Portugal also included. Trying to get at the bottom of how this Latino word got attached to these people , the best answer I got was because they speak a neo-Latin language (derived from Latin).
But what about French, Italian, Romanian and other minorities speaking also neo-Latin languages? No explanation possible. Yet I can still argue I am Latino too, if not the real Latino, because I am from Rome.
New York New York
I was excited to be going to America. New York was my entry port. I had friends there.
I arrived in the evening on a cold and windy day in January. The day after was not any different. I stayed with my friends. They left for work in the morning. I set to the city discovery. I was well equipped for the weather with a lined leather coat, but no head cover. The first encounter with the celebrated unfriendly city was when in the subway I dared to ask “how much” for the ticket. The attendant didn’t or couldn’t answer and had a stunned look on his face. He acted like I was an alien from another world (and as a matter of fact I was). When he recovered, he raised his hand and he pointed above his head with the index. I followed it and I discovered the writing in reddish color : 50 cents.He never uttered a word, It took about half an hour from Brooklyn to lower Manhattan.
I got away from Broadway turning to the right and got to the Brooklyn bridge. Here there was more of an open space away from the congested pedestrian traffic. Without an itinerary, I kept walking and walking. Now streets had numbers. I don’t know which avenue I took, I kept going. At 42nd street, I had had enough. Certainly I did not want to walk back. By central station, I found a subway station. Here I met a challenge. Direction of trains was uptown and downtown. I was expecting a more clear concept, like in Paris where they have a name for the two opposite directions. Of course I took a chance and it was the wrong direction. Problem easy solved. But to my horror, I then saw the station where I was supposed to change train go by. Later I found out that I had taken the train on the fast track.
I had called my friends in Brooklyn and told them I would have been there in an hour. It took me instead almost 3 hours. until I managed to find my way. It never crossed my mind to ask for help out of lack of trust in the careless looking and hurried people and most out of stubbornness. I wanted to survive on my own. After a few days, I had become an expert of the New York subway system.
You want to get rich?
Cover of The Science of Getting Rich
I found this book intriguing, and certainly pushed me to a new dimension and perspective. It challenges the way people go about life. It reveals a way of thinking on life that defies common approaches.
It’s called a science: The Science of Getting Rich.
As the author claims (and It’s easy to agree), if not the first, certainly one of the first preoccupations in life is to look for a way of getting rich. Why? When we are rich, we are free to pursue and devote to whatever in our life. Or we are not able to function at our own potential when we are of limited means. Simple and true.
The author insists on a mindset as the most important asset to getting rich. He states that whatever exists and was created came from a thought or a series of them.
For sure all that revolves around us started in somebody’s mind: a thought.
Riches can also be created by a simple thought and entertaining it, according to the author.
I am sure many, included me, dismissed this crazy concept. But, as the book is intriguing and at every sentence challenges common beliefs, I kept reading, just to find out how far this theory would be pushed.
Here’s in summary what’s about.
Firstly we got to know what we want. We know that we want to be rich. But we have to define in details what that entitles. Example: a beautiful house, made of bricks, stones, how many rooms, what color the roof, on how much land, with swimming pool, a large deck. 2 car garages… The details are important.
Don’t be afraid to be wanting too much. Keep the vision constantly on your thoughts. Because everything that revolves around you was conceived in a thought at the beginning. True?
Never mind in whatever situation you are. Your thoughts will become a reality. Your thoughts will find a way for you to materialize. That means you will reach your goal by running into ways and means to achieve it.
Of course you have to believe that you amply deserve what you are asking for and there are no barriers to stop you, because it’s yours for wanting it.
When you have this belief, you’ll find yourself easily, actively engaged in getting what you envisioned in your thoughts. Leave any doubts or your vision will falter.
Do you believe Alexander had doubts when he left the comfort of his kingdom with an army of about 30.000 and conquered the mighty Persian empire?. What about Marconi and his crazy thought (at the time) of wireless communications? Or Edison when he never gave up to his thought of an incandescent light bulb.
Moral of the story: if you can picture something in your mind to be possible, then it’s all done. You just have to start the realization. Example: you never could impress in your mind that you can fly like superman. No way your mind can entertain this thought. But if you accept a fact, your thoughts will guide you.
I don’t know about you. I simply know that thousands if not millions of people got to riches with not so out of this world means and ways. So I know the road has been traveled.
A great philosopher (if you don’t believe in his divinity), Jesus, said: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you”.
Another one of my favorite quotes, attributed to Henry Ford: “If you can or you can’t, you’re both right”.
Related article
- Living Life Abundantly Is Possible (prweb.com)
9/11 Memories
In the last 2 days, the news have been dominated by the 9/11 events. Today every time I turn on the TV, nothing else but that. Although 9/11 is a major occurrence that shook America, of course the media are businesses and as such they are keen to cater to the expectations of their audience.
This is a day when most of the people will remember as where they were and what they were doing, something like when John Kennedy was shot. I was at this hotel in New Jersey when I heard that a plane hit one of the towers. I went out, looked at the terse clear blue sky. There were some real small white clouds high in the sky, but they certainly could not preclude visibility. The air was crisp, but not chilly, I was out on a shirt and it was sunny.
I went to my parked car and put on the CBS radio station news, AM 88. I heard this pilot answering the interviewer. He was saying that it could not see how that could be an accident and gave an explanation why not. I do not remember the explanation. I know I went back inside the hotel, must have been no more than 5 minutes after. Now there were 2 big TV placed in the atrium. We were all watching the world trade center tower with the smoke billowing from near the top. And then all of a sudden I saw a plane crashing and entering near the top floors of the tower next. I remained incredulous, not believing what I just saw. Only after a few moments, looking around at the other spectators, I realized this was real. I lost track of the time after that and watched until the towers, incredibly, collapsed.