I thought I was lucky. Perhaps I was wrong.
One Million times wrong.
It’s a sunny and colorful fall afternoon.
As I speak with my girlfriend while we walk in nature, I catch myself pronouncing the words “one million”. These few syllables suddenly evoke in me the image of “Il Signor Bonaventura”, the protagonist of a comic that in Italy has an almost centennial history. In fact, this tall and seemingly clumsy man has just turned 99. His first appearance dates back to October 28, 1917, number 43 of the “Corriere dei Piccoli”, the supplement for children of Corriere della Sera, one of the main newspapers in Italy. It used to be a full-page comic strips made of eight vignettes, each accompanied by a text in verses.
I want to show my girlfriend what it is all about; I promptly google it, click on “images” and here we are: the third result is a page from “Corriere dei Piccoli”. The first panel, or rather the first two verses underneath it, already hit me: “Mr. Bonaventura, optimistic by nature …” (as for every single frame, with rhyme in Italian: “Il Signor Bonaventura, ottimista di natura”)
I scroll through the page quickly, reading the whole story. As it often happens, the improbable hero in red & white turns a dangerous situation or a challenge into an opportunity to do good, to help others. In this case, threatened by a bomb thrown in the food basket by his historical enemy Barbariccia, he saves (quite by chance) a man who was being attacked by a shark.
The finale is the same as nearly each episode: Mr. Bonaventura receives “One million” (of Italian Lira) as a reward. Note that one million lira in the first decades of the twentieth century represented an astronomical figure, totally disproportionate to the situation. Not surprisingly, to maintain this status of surrealism , from the 60's this figure has become one billion.
Mr. Bonaventura is an icon of optimism, positivity, kindness of heart, and, why not, good luck (hence the name Bona-Ventura, quite literally: good fate).
Someone may dwell on the fact that the aforementioned rescue took place in a seemingly random manner. Indeed, quite often Mr. Bonaventura appears to be kissed by fortune, in an almost systematic way.
So what is the point of this comic?
Here is the way I look at it: why do we feel that the voluntary nature of a gesture is so damn important? We often believe that a positive result born out of an involuntary act is of a lower value compared to the same result obtained with an apparently conscious effort. We call the first case ‘luck’ and the second ‘courage’, ‘skill’ or ‘virtue’. Are we sure that there is no different way to look at it? What about the following aspect: this interpretation does not give any credit to the inner energy of the protagonist, which -I believe- is an absolutely critical element of life.
To be more specific… What is the status of consciousness in which Mr. Bonaventura lives? Does he feel peaceful? What are his deepest motivations? How does he perceive the world?
Truth is, Mr. Bonaventura is “lucky” because he sees the world with benevolent eyes. The universe helps him because his heart is not filled with judgments or wrapped in preconceptions. He lives a seemingly simple life, but he remains in the present and accepts it lovingly, even when life appears to challenge or threaten him. Mr. Bonaventura creates his own world, because in his heart he rejects nothing of what life offers, pleasant or not, thus transforming the external events with the positive energy that he produces within - and that he inevitably transfers to the world.
Now, can we see that the voluntary nature of an act is not AS important anymore? We all strive in continuous efforts to get this or that: the house, the car, the promotion, fame, love, you name it. All these efforts demand a certain element of will, don’t they? However the real question is: how do we feel while we make these efforts? Are we at peace, do we enjoy the journey? Are we willing to accept that we may not get exactly what we want (or we think we want)? Are we independent of the result or do we make it a life-or-death issue? Do we make victims on the path towards our “objectives” or do we welcome the people we meet on the way with joy and gratitude, aware that each encounter holds a lesson and a connection?
It’s not an accident that Mr. Bonaventura receives a surreal figure, written by hand on a sheet of paper. That is not a cash reward, it is simply a symbol of gratitude that the universe offers him.
The “one million” represents the non-quantifiable value we all receive in life, sometimes in obvious ways, some other times more mysteriously. It doesn’t follow the mere cause-effect logic that we attribute to events in trying to rationalize them. It’s something deeper, something that defies our senses.
It’s the bridge between the with-in and the with-out.
I am certain, money wouldn’t change the humble and loving attitude of our hero next door.
He knows that the real wealth lies elsewhere. And it’s not far away. Not at all.
I scroll the screen of my mobile up to the top of the page. A shiver of warm energy flows through my back as I figure out the page I was looking at has the the date of September 27, 1959: the exact date of my birthday, only 20 years earlier.
It takes me a few more minutes before I realize that red & white has always been my favorite combination of colors… and once more it comes to my mind that happy refrain, the one -I know now- that will accompany me throughout my life:
Il Signor Bonaventura, ottimista di natura
Vale, November 2016
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