I was surprised by the passion driving my colleagues in their fight against deadly diseases such as cancer, AIDS and Alzheimer. I admired their motivation, but at the same time I felt I didn’t have a similar incentive. As crazy as it may sound, I thought that the inevitability of death was so much greater than our efforts that increasing life’s duration by a few years could be considered only a relative success. Undoubtedly it is good to relieve pain and to rationally administer medicine to heal people. But this is not the point.

The point

I felt the clash of these thoughts but I was incapable of giving them an order. The story of Chiara and Enrico unexpectedly clarified it all in my heart. I realized that curing diseases is a very good thing, but that man’s real opportunity does not dwell in the healing, but rather in the way we face and live throughout the disease. Even when it leads to its most extreme outcome: death. And yes, this is actually a contradiction: to live death. The fruits of Chiara’s death are joy, hope and love. I saw it on the day of her funeral, in the witnessing of her father. I saw it in her husband’s eyes.

Change of perspective

For years I’ve tried to fight diseases. To this cause I devoted my intelligence, my skills, and my time. But I discovered that all this truly makes sense only when there is a clear end goal. The end goal, the true goal is not to cure the disease. The true goal is to live a fulfilling life, to love and give it all. And this is true under any circumstance we may face. We are afraid of dying because we realize we haven’t reached this goal. We want more time.

A life fulfilled

See, this is the problem: whether we’ve reached this fulfillment or not. And this fulfillment is achieved by giving, not receiving. Giving yourself, your time, your words, your prayers. What good does it do to cure the disease of the body, if what’s killing the soul and brings in sadness remains uncured? It is important to cure the body, but it’s even more important and urgent to cure the soul. Even more important is to cure the disease that turns our daily life grey and dull. Chiara is dead. But her departure left fullness of heart. Do you understand? The daily struggle is trivial. The daily bitterness is not the point. At the end of the day the only question that matters is: are you spending your only life for something meaningful? Or are you just pursuing your career? A trivial dream? Economic stability? Where are you? Look at what you’re holding on to.

Here and now

Every moment in life, even at the point of death, is the right moment to take this road. Let’s push back all the regrets, the disappointments, let’s grab what we have in our life and offer it. It only takes a gaze. Make this decision now.