These days our thoughts are with the people of Japan after the tremendous tsunami and earthquake that took place in that beautiful country. As we go on with our daily lifes subconsciously we carry with us a sense of renewed uncertainty brought by the sudden impulsive behaviour of our mother earth.
Even right now, as a storm rages in San Francisco i find myself reflecting about that invisible but permanent human vulnerability in a complex world whose next step we can never predict.
These thoughts even invade some of my kitchen hours. As my friends know i have always loved bread. Since a great friend of mine taught me a bread recipe many years ago in Italy i have enjoyed making my own bread ocasionally. There is something truly special about homemade bread. It is a slow peaceful process that brings you closer with the foundations of food and of your own soul in many ways. I wish i could make a daily bread. Not having time for that i try to make it as often as possible. Last weekend i had the chance to enjoy the process again.
Usually i love making different shapes and masks made of bread. This time i made some simple figures in different postures. This one that i post here is certainly influenced by the tsunami events in Japan. More specifically after i made it it makes me think of a human being running away during a tsunami warning. As i looked at the bread figure i could imagine the sirens, the chaos and the anxiety of so many anonymous humans whose names we have never heard, running away from the tsunami warnings, looking for high ground from which to escape the violent and extremely dangerous waves.
In this dramatic pose in which the wind pulls the clothing and hair of the person we can almost feel what that human being leaves behind as he/she escapes from the rage of mother nature. Humans leaving their homes, their memories, sometimes not running away from the waves but actually running towards them looking for lost members of their families or friends or strangers they seek to help. So many anonymous stories of courage, generosity, care, so many stories of the human being struggling to survive, seeking for the next embrace of our unpredictable blue planet.
This is not a bread that i could eat after i made it. But neither that was needed. For this anonymous figure is already within me, within us these days as we reflect and we send our energy and thoughts to the brave people of Japan.
