Lives in Brackets

by Rosita Mazzi, MSW

March 8 - May 8, 2020 - Somewhere in Italy

They laid our lives in brackets!

Since tonight the Italian government ordered a total “lockdown."

Suddenly we are in a mandatory exile,

The world is suspended

We are all in chains

We are all guilty

Maybe we must pay the bill for recent limitless social behaviors…

#guilt #unbelief #fear #anxiety # love #attachment #joy #happiness

Our souls

Many cornucopias of paradoxical feelings 

Right now we are like frozen… how can we go on?

What can we do?

What can we hope?

It is so heavy to carry on the loneliness…

We are social animals, not loner wolves 

The meaning of human life is to relate each other 

that is the meaning,

these are the roots of human society…

After this nightmare 

we will come back to our lives,

maybe less wealthy, but more aware of the real values of existence.

The world needs us, the social workers, now more than before 

We should be some of main characters of a new society!

We can go all together toward a more equal, democratic social organization, after this failure of capitalist paradigm.

We have many professional tools good to help our clients now more and more weak.

We are also ready to be part of the team that can address the humankind rehab toward more equality 

after this silent war.

Rosita Mazzi, MSW, is a social worker specializing in family therapy and drug addiction treatment. She received her first degree in social work at Pisa University in 1984 and her second degree in sociology at Bologna University in 1991. She works at a public health service named Ser.dp in Ausl of Reggio Emilia, Italy.