Saga Written by Mr. Giorgio Ducci
Ms. First was the first student in her school and was called swot. She was always studying, she was passionate about literature, chemistry, maths, history and of course languages. Languages were the most fun subject to her, and she went crazy to find untranslatable English words because she thought she was speaking the highest language in the world: English.
Unlike her cousin, her curiosity drove her to ask questions all the time, making assumptions and evaluating the consequences of everything. Sometimes she would even push into imaginary scenarios, but not too much; she needed to keep her feet on the ground. Her existence was marked by the combination of cause and effect. Ms. First did not look like a woman but like a robot following the binary program. If I press the button, the elevator will come. Situation certainly likely. If I drink coffee, I will wake up. Her syntax was simple: if I do one thing, there will be something later. “If” and “when” were always close to tangible assumptions. She left the situations outside of her control to others.
Sometimes she felt trapped, though a victim of her own thought patterns. She noticed this one day when she went to an Italian restaurant for lunch and at the end of the meal ordered a cappuccino. The waiter was exasperated by yet another request for a cappuccino at the end of the meal and tried to convince the young intellectual to order something else. Ms First in her head was thinking, “If I fancy a cappuccino, I’ll order it,” and did not tune in to any other possibility. Then the waiter, who tried to lead her toward a second, less tangible but broader-spectrum condition, “if you were Italian, you would never order it.” She felt shaken because someone had dared to question her binary code and invited her to look at things from another perspective.
For the first time, she felt there was more beyond her assumptions. But she quickly went back on her heels and thought, “If I have to deal with this waiter again, I will explain to him that before making assumptions, he needs to consider what he has on his hands in the present to evaluate what will arise in the future.” She drank her cappuccino and went home happy.