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Good evening – or, good morning,
I am not sure what time it is there.
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Regardless of the hour, I am thrilled
to be participating in your conference.
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I very much like its title
– "The Future You" –
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because, while looking at tomorrow,
it invites us to open a dialogue today,
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to look at the future through a "you."
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"The Future You:"
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the future is made of yous,
it is made of encounters,
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because life flows
through our relations with others.
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Quite a few years of life
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have strengthened my conviction
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that each and everyone's existence
is deeply tied to that of others:
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life is not time merely passing by,
life is about interactions.
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As I meet, or lend an ear
to those who are sick,
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to the migrants
who face terrible hardships
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in search of a brighter future,
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to prison inmates who carry
a hell of pain inside their hearts,
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and to those, many of them young,
who cannot find a job,
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I often find myself wondering:
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"Why them and not me?"
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I, myself, was born
in a family of migrants;
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my father, my grandparents,
like many other Italians,
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left for Argentina
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and met the fate of those
who are left with nothing.
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I could have very well ended up
among today's "discarded" people.
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And that's why I always ask myself,
deep in my heart:
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"Why them and not me?"
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First and foremost, I would love it
if this meeting could help to remind us
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that we all need each other,
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none of us is an island,
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an autonomous and independent "I",
separated from the other,
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and we can only build the future
by standing together, including everyone.
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We don’t think about it often,
but everything is connected,
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and we need to restore
our connections to a healthy state.
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Even the harsh judgment I hold in my heart
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against my brother or my sister,
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the open wound that was never cured,
the offense that was never forgiven,
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the rancor that is only going to hurt me,
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are all instances of a fight
that I carry within me,
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a flare deep in my heart
that needs to be extinguished
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before it goes up in flames,
leaving only ashes behind.
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Many of us, nowadays,
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seem to believe that a happy future
is something impossible to achieve.
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While such concerns
must be taken very seriously,
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they are not invincible.
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They can be overcome when we don't lock
our door to the outside world.
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Happiness can only be discovered
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as a gift of harmony between the whole
and each single component.
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Even science – and you know it
better than I do –
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points to an understanding of reality
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as a place where every element connects
and interacts with everything else.
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And this brings me to my second message.
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How wonderful would it be
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if the growth of scientific
and technological innovation
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would come along with more equality
and social inclusion.
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How wonderful would it be,
while we discover faraway planets,
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to rediscover the needs of the brothers
and sisters orbiting around us.
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How wonderful would it be if solidarity,
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this beautiful and, at times,
inconvenient word,
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were not simply reduced to social work,
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and became, instead, the default attitude
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in political, economic
and scientific choices,
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as well as in the relationships
among individuals, peoples and countries.
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Only by educating people
to a true solidarity
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will we be able to overcome
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the "culture of waste,"
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which doesn't concern only food and goods
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but, first and foremost, the people
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who are cast aside
by our techno-economic systems
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which, without even realizing it,
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are now putting products
at their core, instead of people.
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Solidarity is a term that many wish
to erase from the dictionary.
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Solidarity, however,
is not an automatic mechanism.
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It cannot be programmed or controlled.
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It is a free response born
from the heart of each and everyone.
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Yes, a free response!
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When one realizes
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that life, even in the middle
of so many contradictions, is a gift,
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that love is the source
and the meaning of life,
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how can they withhold their urge
to do good to another fellow being?
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In order to do good,
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we need memory, we need courage
and we need creativity.
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And I know that TED
gathers many creative minds.
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Yes, love does require
a creative, concrete
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and ingenious attitude.
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Good intentions and conventional formulas,
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so often used to appease
our conscience, are not enough.
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Let us help each other,
all together, to remember
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that the other is not
a statistic or a number.
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The other has a face.
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The "you" is always a real presence,
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a person to take care of.
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There is a parable Jesus told
to help us understand the difference
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between those who'd rather not be bothered
and those who take care of the other.
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I am sure you have heard it before.
It is the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
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When Jesus was asked:
"Who is my neighbor?" -
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namely, "Who should I take care of?" -
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he told this story, the story of a man
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who had been assaulted, robbed,
beaten and abandoned along a dirt road.
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Upon seeing him, a priest and a Levite,
two very influential people of the time,
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walked past him without stopping to help.
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After a while, a Samaritan, a very much
despised ethnicity at the time, walked by.
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Seeing the injured man
lying on the ground,
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he did not ignore him
as if he weren't even there.
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Instead, he felt compassion for this man,
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which compelled him to act
in a very concrete manner.
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He poured oil and wine
on the wounds of the helpless man,
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brought him to a hostel
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and paid out of his pocket
for him to be assisted.
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The story of the Good Samaritan
is the story of today’s humanity.
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People's paths are riddled with suffering
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as everything is centered around money,
and things, instead of people.
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And often there is this habit, by people
who call themselves "respectable,"
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of not taking care of the others,
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thus leaving behind thousands
of human beings, or entire populations,
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on the side of the road.
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Fortunately, there are also those
who are creating a new world
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by taking care of the other,
even out of their own pockets.
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Mother Teresa actually said:
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"One cannot love,
unless it is at their own expense."
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We have so much to do,
and we must do it together.
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But how can we do that
with all the evil we breathe every day?
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Thank God,
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no system can nullify our desire
to open up to the good,
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to compassion and to our capacity
to react against evil,
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all of which stem
from deep within our hearts.
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Now you might tell me,
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"Sure, these are beautiful words,
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but I am not the Good Samaritan,
nor Mother Teresa of Calcutta."
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On the contrary: we are precious,
each and every one of us.
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Each and every one of us
is irreplaceable in the eyes of God.
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Through the darkness of today's conflicts,
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each and every one of us
can become a bright candle,
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a reminder that light
will overcome darkness,
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and never the other way around.
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To Christians,
the future does have a name,
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and its name is Hope.
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Feeling hopeful does not mean
to be optimistically naïve
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and ignore the tragedy humanity is facing.
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Hope is the virtue of a heart
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that doesn't lock itself into darkness,
that doesn't dwell on the past,
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does not simply get by in the present,
but is able to see a tomorrow.
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Hope is the door
that opens onto the future.
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Hope is a humble, hidden seed of life
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that, with time,
will develop into a large tree.
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It is like some invisible yeast
that allows the whole dough to grow,
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that brings flavor to all aspects of life.
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And it can do so much,
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because a tiny flicker of light
that feeds on hope
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is enough to shatter
the shield of darkness.
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A single individual
is enough for hope to exist,
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and that individual can be you.
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And then there will be another "you,"
and another "you,"
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and it turns into an "us."
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And so, does hope begin
when we have an "us"?
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No.
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Hope began with one "you."
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When there is an "us,"
there begins a revolution.
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The third message
I would like to share today
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is, indeed, about revolution:
the revolution of tenderness.
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And what is tenderness?
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It is the love that comes close
and becomes real.
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It is a movement
that starts from our heart
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and reaches the eyes,
the ears and the hands.
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Tenderness means to use
our eyes to see the other,
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our ears to hear the other,
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to listen to the children, the poor,
those who are afraid of the future.
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To listen also to the silent cry
of our common home,
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of our sick and polluted earth.
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Tenderness means to use
our hands and our heart
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to comfort the other,
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to take care of those in need.
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Tenderness is the language
of the young children,
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of those who need the other.
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A child’s love for mom and dad
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grows through their touch, their gaze,
their voice, their tenderness.
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I like when I hear parents
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talk to their babies,
adapting to the little child,
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sharing the same level of communication.
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This is tenderness:
being on the same level as the other.
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God himself descended into Jesus
to be on our level.
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This is the same path
the Good Samaritan took.
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This is the path that Jesus himself took.
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He lowered himself,
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he lived his entire human existence
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practicing the real,
concrete language of love.
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Yes, tenderness is the path of choice
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for the strongest,
most courageous men and women.
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Tenderness is not weakness,
it is fortitude.
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It is the path of solidarity,
the path of humility.
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Please, allow me to say it loud and clear:
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the more powerful you are,
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the more your actions
will have an impact on people,
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the more responsible you are
to act humbly.
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If you don’t, your power will ruin you,
and you will ruin the other.
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There is a saying in Argentina:
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"Power is like drinking gin
on an empty stomach."
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You feel dizzy, you get drunk,
you lose your balance,
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and you will end up hurting yourself
and those around you,
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if you don’t connect your power
with humility and tenderness.
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Through humility and concrete love,
on the other hand,
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power – the highest, the strongest one –
becomes a service, a force for good.
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The future of humankind isn't exclusively
in the hands of politicians,
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of great leaders, of big companies.
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Yes, they do hold
an enormous responsibility.
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But the future is, most of all,
in the hands of those people
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who recognize the other as a "you"
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and themselves as part of an "us."
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We all need each other.
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And so, please, think of me
as well with tenderness,
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so that I can fulfill the task
I have been given
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for the good of the other,
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of each and every one, of all of you,
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of all of us.
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Thank you.
Yasushi Aoki
remainder -> reminder
Helene Batt
Fixed, thank you!