Est ardalionum quaedam Vilniuje natio, trepide concursans, occupata in otio, gratis anhelans, multa agendo nil agens
(Phaedrus)
Užupis, a district of Vilnius - the so-called Republic of Artists. There is a restaurant right there, in the centre of the little central square – a magnificent place, very close to the bridge that you incontrovertibly must cross arriving from Onos Bažnyčia.
This restaurant is well known in the Italian community of Vilnius, famous for illustrious gourmands. Big bellies, bad breath, satisfied faces, bright and vivid eyes yearning for food. They have the most elaborated possible philosophies regarding their stand with regard to traditional recipes, each of one consisting in a different universe: pasta alla puttanesca, carbonara, spaghetti alla amatriciana (one of the most vexed question: which is the original way to prepare the real pasta alla amatriciana? Eternally unsolved question, since are many heretical positions about it). Which wine with which course? How the right pesto alla genovese has to be done? They are ruthlessly fighting, opposing one dogma to another dogma. No jokes. Those are real problems, where no minimal oversight is allowed.
There is also a famous Facebook group, called Italian Gourmets in Vilnius, where scholarly talks and discussions about the above-mentioned themes are regularly held.
The tone of philosophical discussions is very high. One of the most recent debates in the posts of the group was “Does free will exists in elaborating recipes or is there any compatibilism?”
A detached observer (is it, anyway, possible a detached observer?) who randomly were sitting under the obelisk adjacent to the restaurant entrance should have the chance to watch them swarming back and forth from and to the restaurant would probably be under the impression to see a swarm of obnoxious insects aligned with the hope of food when waiting, with benign smiles on their visage after leaving.
Once I had a chat with one of the members. I realized how impeded he was to distinguish the world around him (Vilnius) and the world he left behind many years ago (Italy). They lived in one world but they still thought to live in the one they used to live before.
- You know this is my dividend of being excluded from Italian life.
Those words reminded me of other words: "How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense?”
Inconsequential platitudes. Just inconsequential platitudes. That was the way those people were. Meaningless expression of platitudes.
I was a martial artist, I was not interested in food. Food for me was just a way of supplying my need for energy. I didn’t feel any particular pleasure when I ate.
But Italians in Vilnius, because of their persistence in their credo, reminded me of a philosophical distinction. The distinctions between hedgehog-thinkers and fox-thinkers.
Fox-thinkers without a unitary inner vision, hedgehog-thinkers with a unitary inner vision.
Italians were bearers of a single, universal message. They confined themselves to that exclusive activity. Eating.
They probably were foxes by nature but saw a better chance in being hedgehogs.
(To be continued...)
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