Two Great Personalities

I ended last year with a blog entry on mindsets. The way we think is a preoccupation of mine as we are our thoughts. And this situation should be of some concern to us all. This is because we live according to what we believe in and this can either enslave us in our day to day life or else liberate us. It takes time, experience and awareness not to mention some daring open mindedness of this phenomenon.

Today I came across two bits of interesting news that illustrate what I am saying.

One is the death of Carlo Ponti, the great film director and mostly known as Sophia Loren's husband. He was 94. When he was refused a divorce from his first wife to marry Sophia he is documented as saying: "The problem in Italy is, that the Popeis the real owner of the country. Nobody in Italy believes in God. But they are all Catholics." Ponti and Sophia's marriage was recognised in Italy only after the Italian parliament voted to legalise divorce in 1970. This shows that we in Malta are still living in the 60s.

Another interesting bit of news is that the previously unseen final letter that Captain Robert Falcon Scott wrote to his wife as he battled back from the South Pole in March 1912 was made public yesterday. His descendants announced that they were giving it, along with earlier letters, to Cambridge University's Scott Polar Institute. But what I found interesting is a couple of entries in this letter. One consisted of some instructions to his wife on the raising of their son which said, "...try and make him believe in a God, it is comforting." So this boy is to be raised on believing in some illusion - just because it is comforting! I wonder whether I am missing some point here.

And the other entry further down the letter says this: "What lots and lots I could tell you of this journey. How much better it has been than lounging in comfort at home — what tales you would have for the boy but oh what a price to pay — to forfeit the sight of your dear dear face." Hey, where are one's priorities? Reading this I gather that he loved adventure more than his wife. Did he really care for his family or his passion was that much bigger? I am trying hard not to make judgements, but I do realise how complex man is.

Just food for thought. Fact is stranger than fiction.