If you’ve never wept and want to, have a child. Break your heart inside (D.F.Wallace)

This Be the Verse

By Philip Larkin

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

    They may not mean to, but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had

    And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn

    By fools in old-style hats and coats,

Who half the time were soppy-stern

    And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.

    It deepens like a coastal shelf.

Get out as early as you can,

    And don’t have any kids yourself.

Philip Larkin, “This Be the Verse” from Collected Poems. Used by permission of The Society of Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of Philip Larkin.

Source: Collected Poems (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2001)

don’t be cynic. you’re just 23. that’s what they usually tell me when I start explaining aloud my personal point of view on having a child.

(remember that I come from a very traditional rustic family of a provincial area in Italy.

my aunts and uncles just can’t consider the idea of not having your own house, your own family and your own children. there are alternatives, but they are basically perceived as an insult towards traditions.

as for me, I do feel like the guy from Trainspotting. I just don’t feel like choosing this prepacked life format)

let’s be a bit more scientific. let’s switch to some talkative numbers:

• there are 19000 children under 5 that die everyday for avoidable reasons (lack of food, lack of medicines)

• Malaria kills a child somewhere in the world every 30 seconds. It infects 350-500 million people each year, killing 1 million, mostly children in Africa

• in the ex-communist countries in Europe and Asia 15000 children get abandomned every year (the Central Government should look after them)

(these are just some of the statistics you can read on the website of the Unicef)

is it selfish to think that there are many sons to look after in many different ways even without producing your own offspring?

while reading these numbers, I just cannot help myself from echoing D.F.Wallace’s words.

if you’ve never wept and want to, have a child. Break your heart inside (D.F.Wallace)

too cynically cruel? don’t think so. harsh, stiff, but true.

another wicked problem, I’d say. not to solve, just to cope with.

David Foster Wallace (1962-2008)

enjoyable surprise of a physicist mind

it is pretty hard for a just-ex Literature student to follow a whole conference of Theoretical Physics (it might be the same with the Applied one, but Theoretical looks even farther away). Quantum laser, nanoscience, bosons etc etc, all of these sound like stunning amazing things. very stunning. literally mind-blowing.

still, I believe it’s not so bad to be overwhelmed by knowledge. it’s a thrilling experience. especially if you happen to be attending a school of journalism where you get the chance to meet Very Important People. Yes, in Physics, Maths, Science, not bad. surely, it would be easier to interview Rihanna about her last CD. I’m quite sure she wouldn’t use words for which you need to concentrate quite hard to understand (BIG word, in this case).

but give these scientists a chance and you won’t regret it (hopefully, of course).

that’s what I think after a meeting with Federico Capasso. apart from stuffing my head with question marks about nanoscience, rarefaction, reflection, physical laws of every kind, he happened to be quite a Socratic guru.

get stressed, be ambitious, don’t believe people that tell you it’s not important to be the first.

but don’t get frustrated.

be courageous, stretch your mind, think.

and don’t lay down on the couch of sure things. open your mind. and start considering problems, not just disciplines. it not simply a matter of Physics. or Chemistry. or Biology. problems relate to many fields. they’re interdisciplinary.

problems don’t have precise edges. especially the wicked ones. the ones that need many people to be solved. a net of people collaborating.

because you can get unexpected surprises from people surrounding you. dare to try and get inspired, as he said.

inspiring me more for his ideas than for his huge Physics, actually.

thanks F.