When was the last time you felt wonder?
December has arrived… the year is coming to an end and you can already smell the warm and sweet scent of Christmas in the air, like a musical tonic against the harsh cold that chills us in the streets. I bet that when you were young you also believed Santa! And as long as you believed it there was a magic, a mystery that elevated that deception to something more. When the mystery is revealed, the magic fades, the deception is shown and the enchantment gives way to awareness.
What’s best for you?
Not knowing and being surprised
or knowing and detracting from the enchantment?
We should, in order to be able to respond, consider a mysterious and powerful emotion, ancient and universal: Wonder. Reflect on the importance of being receptive to it, not only during the holidays, but throughout our lives.
Wonder is a complex set of emotions and according to Aristotle it is not a reassuring emotion, but an earthquake that confronts us with the unknown of life, death, love, from birth.
In 2018, an important set of research was published entitled The Science of Awe, where one chapter is devoted to the evolutionary function of wonder. An intense experience of wonder can cause cognitive change so profound that it changes the way we view ourselves and the world.
When you feel wonder, you restructure your mental patterns and activate critical thinking.
In the daily noise of our busy lives, we get used to the routine, the responsibilities of work and family, forgetting to slow down and appreciate the wonder that surrounds us. Christmas gives us the opportunity to stop and look around.
Let’s take pride in the innocence of children
who live every experience as a wonderful adventure.
When we look at a child’s face as they open a gift, we see how wonder is key to our happiness. It gives us a different perspective, it helps us remember that the world is full of surprises and possibilities. But unfortunately these possibilities are often unfairly distributed…
This is why this year too we will reduce Christmas gifts to our customers and business partners to support the Meyer Paediatric Hospital in Florence, an important highly specialised hospital integrated with the departments of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug and Child Health, Health Sciences and Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences of the University of Florence Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. Dreaming of a world free from childhood diseases!
Today we live in an age where, in order to catch our attention, countless content is produced that seeks to evoke precisely that wonder, that disarray, that enchantment. We have also asked Artificial Intelligence (AI) for help in creating the images of this newsletter… snapshots of a few seconds that stimulate the endorphins of our pleasure: Videos, photos, stickers, memes. At any moment of the day you can see something wondrous happening or taking place at enormous distances: The view of the earth from Mars, the tropical forest, the eruption of a volcano, a genocide, the explosion of a star…The universe is at hand, travelling around the world is no longer that necessary, it is the world that comes to us.
Developing wonder can be a very beneficial exercise, not only observing what surrounds us and seeing its beauty, but preserving it with concrete actions for future generations, promoting responsible behaviours and lifestyles.
We are pleased to share with you our small contribution: We have achieved 8 of the 17 goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development!
Goal 5 – Gender Equality: We have promoted gender equality within our company, ensuring equal opportunities and an inclusive work environment for all.
Goal 7 – Clean Energy: We have adopted renewable energy sources to meet our energy needs, thereby reducing carbon emissions and mitigating our environmental impact.
Goal 8 – Decent Work and Stable Economy: We have created decent jobs, ensuring fair wages and safe working conditions for our employees.
Goal 9 – Innovation and Infrastructure: We have invested in innovation, constantly improving our products and processes to be at the forefront of the industry, and promoting the development of sustainable infrastructure.
Goal 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production: We have adopted sustainable practices in the manufacture of our products and have encouraged our customers to adopt responsible behaviours when buying and using our products.
Goal 13 – Climate Action: We have reduced our greenhouse gas emissions and implemented strategies to adapt to climate change, contributing to the fight against global warming.
Goal 14 – Preservation of marine life: we have implemented eco-friendly packaging practices and reduced the use of materials harmful to the marine ecosystem, thus contributing to the preservation of marine habitats.
Goal 15 – Preservation of Earth life: We use only paper from controlled forests. We provide the support needed to plant trees in degraded areas, thus contributing to the preservation of our natural resources.
We thank you for your support and invite you to continue to join us on this important journey towards sustainable development for all. Together we can make a difference!
Now let’s go back to our Santa Claus.
To find out that there is no such thing is to remove mystery.
But it is a necessary discovery to become an adult.
It is understanding that life is wonderful, that is, it’s about admiration, surprise, amazement, perplexity, fear and paralysis.