Compliments of the President of the Organizing Committee

Harmony

From the window of my office I can see the young Swiss pine. It was 2001 when we uprooted it from the river bank, the water menacing to drown it. We transplanted it up here. I can still remember, then it only just peeked above the window ledge and I could still see the whole of the elegant late Gothic steeple of the small church dedicated to Catherine of Egypt, the patron saint of Corvara. Now I can only just glimpse that steeple, which is increasingly hidden behind the tree. In a few years, the symbol of our village will disappear from my view, completely concealed by the increasingly thick branches of my friendly invader. The first pine cones will arrive and the evergreen will grow even more. Gradually it will begin to cast a shadow and perhaps, one day, the sun’s rays will not be able to bring this splendid light into my office.
We perceive harmony when it is there. Vice versa, this balance is endangered when we feel its absence most strongly. Goethe wrote about it: "A heart that seeks, feels that it lacks something; but a heart that has lost, knows that it has been deprived of." That Swiss pine in front of the window of my office has changed my perspective, it has also taken away a little light, but it is in harmony with itself and there is also harmony between us, I can feel it. I will not cut that tree because, as Goethe said, if I would lose it I would know what I had been deprived of.
This year’s Maratona will be dedicated to harmony. Let there be harmony for those who have entered and, with great efforts and sacrifices, are training for it, but let it also be the Maratona for those who are not there, sharing the joys of those who will be pedalling, experiencing it as a shared joy.
Not taking part physically in the Maratona will not be an absence of light, but only seeing things from a different perspective: a perspective made of harmony, if we believe in it. If we want it, that depends on us.

michil costa