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I dream of dreaming in the Maldives

Hello, reader. Are you from the present or the future?

Either way, I don't think this article is what you expect to read. If you're from the present, you're probably here because you were attracted by the title or a promising, inviting photo. But who knows if I will respect that promise... If instead you come from the future, please know that the current world (November 2020) does not exactly represent the most prosperous and carefree period for a large part of humanity.

In my case, I can't complain too much, but I too need to take my thoughts very far. The Maldives? Why not? But there is a reason. Let's see it.

The most frequent reader, or perhaps an acquaintance of mine, will say: “Stray, but you usually go to the seaside only by mistake. You're so white in the summer that if Halloween was in August, you wouldn't even have to buy the ghost costume. And now you tell me that you think of the Maldives!? You have nothing to do with the Maldives."

And it is true. In fact, I have been to the Maldives, but I think it is also appropriate to tell how. If I remember it... About ten years have passed.

We were recently married and, for the first long trip after the wedding, we decided to be in part traditional and also include a few days in the Maldives. How many? If I remember correctly, only three nights: we knew very well that we would not have resisted more in that paradise. We are not saints, after all. Isn't it?

I don't know if it has become easier now, but many years ago holidays in the Maldives were usually sold in packages of one or more weeks, almost always combined with a flight. But we had no intention of staying that long and I eventually found a resort that allowed independent booking, for a minimum of three nights. Probably a win-win solution for both mine and their finances.

We didn't go that far from the capital, Malé. Already many people have admonished me, telling me that I should have gone further south, where "heaven would be even more heavenly". But I'm happy, for me it was a more than satisfying experience, even if I haven't seen all the fish in this world. Because it is true that the fish is always more colorful on the other side, but it is also true that those who sleep should not aim for fishes (this is an adaptation of an Italian way of saying).

So I will be direct: here I speak about sleeping. The dream is understood in a literal sense.

The atoll was nice, I cannot deny that. Nice staff and very varied food. There was even a waiter who spoke some Italian. Nor I can complain about the crowds, because I went in early December, just in time to see a tropical island farsightedly decorated for Christmas, but without the invasion of tourists for the holidays themselves. However... I think I have walked all the way around the island along the shore. We also bought an extra activity or two, like dolphin watching. Which we have barely glimpsed. But apart from that, apart from bathing and drying yourself, bathing again and drying yourself, putting on the sunscreen again so as not to burn yourself, all iteratively... Well, apart from all this, there was really nothing to do. At least for me. Relaxation lovers, please don't hold against me.

And therefore, in addition to what I have briefly told, there is one thing I remember: sleeping, the great sleeps I had at night, but also in the afternoon, in our bungalow.

I believe that the word "island" also has a great symbolic meaning for anyone. Personally I wrote a novel about it, playing on the island's reality-idea combination. Therefore for me, it is a word that has a great evocative charge. A small island is for me a concentrated, finite and measurable space. A territory that gives me only a few thoughts, where almost everything is in sight and under control. But it's not just this. Otherwise, I could also have taken as an example any closed space, bounded by walls. On the island there are no walls: you always have the perception of external space, reachable but still clearly separated. Because there is the sea, which brings news, but at the same time rinses away bad thoughts. You can put them in an imaginary bottle, also hoping that no one will find it anymore. May the waves swallow it forever.

Thoughts like this help me sleep. Let's add that the smartphones of ten years ago weren't all that smart and that the internet coverage wasn't that great either. So the world was left behind. Connected, yes. But far away.

It is the world that exists only when you need it, to which you don't have to give anything in return.

Selfish thinking, I don't deny it. But I think many will be approving of me right now. In the last few days, from home, I am somehow recreating my island. I do my work and then I dedicate myself to undemanding pastimes. I started playing video games again, I watch anime. Sometimes I read. I also take walks, as it is still possible to do it.

The world around me moves slowly, but it is not stopped. Except it's annoying enough to watch, whatever your faction. I don't like factions in general. I have my ideas, but in this context I don't know what to do with them, honestly. All I need to do is keep in touch with my solid and incorruptible identity. And this survives, even when you sleep. Indeed, it is in that situation that it's totally free, that it gives out the best of itself. So, among the various pastimes, I pride myself on having that too: sleeping, dreaming.

So why of so many places do I imagine myself in the Maldives? I could imagine myself in all those countries I love, where I have things to do from 7 in the morning to 10 in the evening. Okay, I'm probably not the king of the nightlife, but I usually deflesh the day to the bone. What am I thinking of doing on an atoll where I would spend about 40% of the time sleeping, when I can do it the same thing at home?

The fact is that sometimes it is not enough to isolate yourself and be alone with yourself. As my favorite writer, Luigi Pirandello wrote (in the novel "One, No One and One Hundred Thousand", but in a quite different context), sometimes I feel the need to be alone "without me". Yes, because often it is not enough to put a barrier, a wall between you and others, towards that world outside our casket of thoughts. In some moments one hopes first of all to separate from oneself, to cancel oneself almost totally, remaining anchored to one's identity only thanks to a strong but thin thread.

So what could be better than dreaming in a place where I mean nothing, which for me is almost indistinguishable in its 360°? The fish won't look for me. If I sleep or be alert three meters away on the sand, it will make no difference to them. They exist. I exist, I believe. In my selfishness, I would ask to be able to survive, but then I would cancel myself in free space, internally and externally, to be built and recombined without too many rules.

Maybe when most of the people outside have calmed down, please someone give me a shout: I'll go out and take a look. Starting with Malé, which isn't exactly a metropolis. Just to regain confidence with the world. After all, who can guarantee me that it will be the same?