Thank you Readers and Bloggers

Dear friends:

One week ago the Hurricane Irma—the largest and strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean—started to hit the South Florida shores. As there was a mandatory evacuation of Miami Beach, my son and I took refuge in an old apartment in Downtown Miami. The structure was sturdy enough to withstand the more than 150 miles-an hour winds that started howling down the streets on Sunday morning but the windows seemed to be on the verge of exploding and we took refuge for an hour in a small closet. That was only the beginning of our ordeal. In the afternoon the power went out and did not return for days. On Wednesday I had the beginning of a severe “heat stroke” syndrome and my son Gian Luca quickly took me out of that sweltering place to bring me back to Miami Beach, which certainly saved my life.

Now I am slowly, yet steadily, recovering with bed rest, anti-inflammatory medication and good hydration in a properly fitted place to stand the Florida summer’s heat. As my mother Gladys used to admonish us: ” there is nothing like a son in your life.”

Thank you my dearest son Giani for accompanying me and saving me.

As the Whatsapp and Messenger services were never discontinued, we could keep in touch with our relatives and closest friends that supported us. When the Internet service was re-established I accessed many messages from you, the readers of this page, for which I thank you from the depth of my heart.

One of the few benefits of the forced rest of the past few days has been the possibility to catch up with a lot of reading without any work/life pressures. One of the books I read was “Les vertus de l’échec”, a best-seller in France, that deals with the benefits of failure to find the right pathway to success. As I want to share this jewel with you, I decided to start a new series called “Foreign book review” that will discuss new books that have not yet being printed in English.

The solidarity of so many bloggers from the planet prodded me to consider, with the critical stimulus of some enthusiastic ladies, to start the process of forming an association of bloggers and videotubers. We are a quasi-anarchic group of independent writers and filmmakers that prize the freedom of expressing our ideas without the constraint of the cultural establishment. However we work in an imperfect, dangerous world, for which we need assistance and networking for major issues. When the time to negotiate contracts for publicity and other commercial interests comes, the professional advice of a mutual association that backs us might make the real difference. Let’s explore and discuss this initiative together in the next few months.

Thank you all my readers and fellow bloggers for so much sympathy and affection.

May God Almighty bless you and your families.