They say that shortly after receiving the Nobel Prize in Stockholm, playwright Luigi Pirandello quickly packed his suitcase and left for Prague where he had arranged to hold a conference at the Italian Institute of Culture.
An episode like that is emblematic when one works in artistic or creative fields: an important contract or an unmissable opportunity can pop up at any moment. And whenever it does, it’s accompanied by a siren song that makes it seem unique, crucial, a ‘must’. The eponymous Mattia Pascal in Pirandello’s novel says that he only ever really felt free when he was “holding a suitcase”: here today, somewhere else tomorrow. The same also applied to Sicilian-born Pirandello who became famous when he was about fifty: a man always on the move (like his aforementioned character) who no doubt felt he needed to make up for lost time.
What a huge effort goes into earning one’s bread (with or without butter)!
Feast day of the Four Crowned Martyrs