and season of gifts, and not just because Christmas is coming. The rituals and ceremonies that accompany the giving and receiving a gift offer a concrete starting point to find ways to say thanks from ours and here.
We Westerners, tell me if I'm wrong, when we receive a gift (or anything as a gift), seldom confine ourselves to a single, terse "thanks", and that's that. At a minimum, we repeat twice, "Thanks, oh, thank you." Usually then - at least this is a good idea except that the gifts for Christmas - unpack it in front of the benefactor (if wrapped), I admire his eyes, we appreciate the contents aloud, color, quality, praising the beauty or even the utility. Often, tell me if I'm wrong, we lie. The lies are harmless, I would say too good. Because in these situations, sincerity and honesty do not bring nothing but mortify the donor and the recipient of a smear layer of arrogance, rudeness, lack of tact.
these parts, so in China, things are not true. I happened to give. The I regular basis with my ayi, who remains in the leg and on which I will not change my opinion because of us - especially my daughter - I would say well you take care. But periodically, ie every time the gift something, he manages to amaze me, even today. Why stripping almost to the bone around the ritual ceremony that we have learned from an early age and we reiterate that with perseverance in the name of good manners, if nothing else.
We come to her, takes the object and utters a single "Xie xie" (that one thanks). End of story. Besides you do not go. Never a second thank you. Not an extra appreciation. Never revealed, and I even doubt that there is in her desire to see what it is. Invariably, In fact, it goes without discarding the gift. Not a word back then the next day when, as punctual as a Swiss watch, put the key in the lock and enters the house. No, not a return to the subject and then let alone, not with a memorial. Nothing.
Every time I think to myself "here we go again." Not very bad, not overly bothered, just can not comprehend that the code is so different thanks. So am I, not without a hint of provocative vein, back in the spotlight and investigates. More than anything else to see if you like. Here, of course - but then also good to see us - no one will ever openly say "it sucks" (because you would lose face and lose their culture in the face to your boss or employer means maybe in the foot), but they can come up with utterances such as "too expensive". Not "thank you very much, I am flattered, I was really pleased," possibly followed by a "but it's too expensive" or "you've spent too much" or "you should not have." No, "too expensive", dry, lean, direct, without prologue or epilogue. At most a chuckle as final. And I
there, more puzzled than before. One response so the conversation killer. What else do you want to add?
At the same time, on any day, I get in the car (as I do on average 5 times a week since I live here) and the driver - still standing outside the car, his back bent in order to enter the passenger - he hands me a tangerine. Yes, a tangerine. One. In his hand he has a second, which begins to peel as soon as the one to grab me. It makes me vaguely to do the same sign. Thank you, I smile, I told him that I'm going to lunch, but the information does not pass. He looks at me with his eyes and calls me to follow his example. While ignoring the reason is clear to me that he wants, and then peel the tangerine, and I eat it. He hands me two paper towels, I expected that it wraps the skin and deliver them to him. What I'm doing. He goes to the trash, get rid of the bassoon, returns the machine, salt, close the door and end of story. I do not remember if it was good, if it had the seeds, if it was already dry or juicy. Nothing. My brain trying to figure out how to process the incident, including appurtenances.
the same period, but on two different days, the postman delivers it directly to your home three parcels from Italy. In addition to the festive wake emanating, we are happy to see that there was no tampering or attempts to open. Then discharged from Italy to China, we took about 10 days (including holidays). I'll just China, 1000 through and histoire à suivre .
Ping, Pang and Pong, as representatives of established power, immediately seek to bring the young and enthusiastic dreamer with immediate profit prose ("You who gaze at the stars, lower your eyes"), and they do trying to seduce him with those temptations that they know are always very powerful and usually no such resists (the proposals that we can not reject ...): sex, money and power. The 
Al decided not to Calaf, pass the second attack by offering baskets of all kinds of jewels, riches and treasures, pouring abundantly ("blue fire! / These shining gems! / Green splendor! / Pale hyacinths! / The red flames Above Rubies! / I drops of stars! / Get is all yours! "). Without thinking 
The theme of temptation in a very difficult test is proper to the great spiritual paths and do not be surprised if we dare to compare to the Buddha and Calaf even the Christ. Prince Siddhartha became the Buddha (the enlightened one) after the famous night when, sitting under the tree of knowledge, he managed to stay completely calm and unflappable in the face of Mara, the demon-eros India that assailed him with visions triggered by the work required of three children, troubled, Inspiration and Pride, and three daughters, dissatisfaction, pleasure and greed. On behalf of the children can understand the nature of temptations and see what are basically the same as the ministers of Calaf in Turandot present. The Buddha's victory will bring the dawn and all of its heavenly rejoice with him (
Returning to Calaf and its temptations, this is the time when there is further clarified the nature of its transport and Turandot, which outlines what is happening is primarily a spiritual path and identified, because all'esaudimento immediate instincts he prefers to fight and to win a woman who is the most secret depths of its soul, which makes it unique and indispensable. Turandot The fascination exerted upon him immediately because of the nature of the projection of Soul, more than a mere sexual attraction, the same projection of Soul that make up Dante and Beatrice which led him to make big business through the " travel "dangerous. Turandot is the Soul to regain it, or rather that aspect of women's inner man, in the progression of the unilateral and domineering patriarchal consciousness, has estranged himself from inimicandosela. Only men more sensitive to notice it, usually artists, and often the poem is a song in search of unity interior (harmony) that we lost long ago, a search of his heartfelt princess raped and abandoned, and when it happens in front of trovarsela, we must be able to do any test to win her back. 
"Turandot: Nessun dorma in Beijing tonight." With this edict, proclaimed dall'araldo begins the third act. 
dell'araldo The phrase ("Nessun dorma ...") is taken from the air Calaf most famous work, but the way it is reversed: what was supposed to be a night of fear and death can become waiting for hope and a prelude to love. The princess herself, even in the chill that still surrounds it, is invited to watch the stars that tremble with love and hope, "and the song ends with the assurance that dawn will bring victory and the rising of the sun heats and break the ice, delivering, through the heat of the first kiss, Turandot to a new life. Even those who know only superficially 
Here begins the most original part of the story, a variation from the classical theme of the hero, at least in the West (in the East and in other cultures there are well-established alternative, but this is a topic that would take us too away, even if is close to my heart and hope to deal with it at length elsewhere), where the victory is always followed by the appropriation and use of the spoils, even as a princess, never ask if you agree (you assume). 
remember that at the beginning of the work, when there is an encounter with his father, we are told that Timur is the deposed king of the Tartars, then it is the Crown Prince Calaf. But we know that the very same Turandot Tartar King was guilty of the crime against the sweet Lou-Ling. And now it's the prince of the Tartars who must repair the horror aroused by his ancestor is even more significant. If revenge is by far, the repair also comes through the lengthy process of generations, from father to son, according to biblical times and archetypal ... 
In Buddhist teaching, he coached the East consciences, through yogic practices, the non-attachment and desire and the tranquility of the soul, and with Gandhi's was the only real attempt enforcement policies " non-violence " but we know that the dominant culture remains rooted in the mentality of the heroic struggle that results in the abasement of the opponent ("rogue states"!). 
The theme of the puzzles is not new in the myths, just think of Oedipus, which meets on his journey to the Sphinx. Have solved the riddle Oedipus assures the hand of Queen and the throne of Thebes, with all that follows ... 
The comparison of Turandot with the Sphinx is not random, because, beyond the beauty, even in Turandot, impenetrable and hard as jade, unrelenting and cold as a sword, lurks a kind of monstrous, complex and higher-level, more important and powerful than a simple woman. It is, in relation to the myth of the hero, dragon and princess at the same time: one who poses the question of death and the prize of the solution. 
In a memorable aria ("In this palace Turandot ..."), explains the reason for such cruelty. His resentment toward men and the subsequent project of revenge have very roots old, more than one thousand years (but, you know, are the days of fairy tales do not start ...), and even violence from a person but by a criminal act perpetrated on an ancient ancestor, Princess Lou-Ling by a man, the king of the Tartars. 
But this is a fairy tale, and it is therefore legitimate not only to stop personal level but try to go further to expand the level of understanding, which allows the material archetypal fable. And here we return to the moon. As a symbol of the female world, the moon is the very center of matriarchal consciousness, and Turandot - identified with the moon - is itself the image of impersonal, almost like a lunar goddess, the original principle Matriarchal that informed and dominated the entire ' humanity before the upper hand and the affirmation in an increasingly violent and soppraffacente of patriarchy, with the shift of consciousness and its values \u200b\u200bto the male. Here then is that the "thousand years" have more meaning, and that the offended ancestor becomes a wound still relevant, because the matriarchal consciousness, raped and displaced thousands of years ago, still bears a bleeding wound and reconciliation is not yet ... 
This is a simplification to fit this story, but in reality things are more complex and the two lines drawn are enriched in meaning if we consider the differentiation of consciousness and its various components. Already in ancient greek (to stay in the mainstream of our culture of origin), the principle Matriarchal dall'archetipo only represented the "great mother" and the moon, both in the positive than in negative (fertility and sterility, life and death), progressively incarnated in several different goddesses, each of which represents an aspect fodamentale (archetypal) in women, and each with two opposite sides: positive and negative, light and dark. Thus we find the look to represent Hera "wife" (in love and faithful but jealous and possessive), Demeter, the loving mother, but do not let go of her daughter, Persephone, the naive daughter close to her mother, but dependent, Aphrodite, the great goddess of beauty and amorous desire ("Cross and delight "...); Artemis, the virgin goddess who drives the youth of his followers in the mountains, the wilderness and away from men (autonomy, but hostility towards the man), Athena, goddess of intelligence, wisdom and the arts, but also warriors armed with shields and auction (protectress of heroes, but ruthless to those who - like Arachne - dare to challenge it), Hestia, goddess of the hearth and keeper of the temple priestess, extremely introverted and also separate from the other 's Olympus. These, very briefly, are the most important goddesses, and then the most important aspects of the female psyche. It goes without saying that they are present in varying degrees in all women, but the prevalence of either playing in a very different (See about the book "Goddesses in the woman's 
In this work there are two fathers: Timur and the Emperor of China, both "noble and old." They share because their function and the psychological significance are similar. One 
The reason for the old king now weakened (by age, illness or other) is a classic fairy tale and shows in a precise situation: an old dominant principle is running out, and must give way to a new order, a new scale of values. 