The invisibile old (I vecchi invisibili)

“When you’re old you become invisible”, thus spoke Valentino Bompiani in 1982 when he was 84 and enjoyed all the light and visibility he could desire. He used to wonder in those years about old age, this unknown time of life which many, from Seneca to Hillman, have written about with great wit, sensitivity and modesty, but often lacking of direct knowledge. This new book from the “i sassi” series, collects some of Bompiani’s writings on the experience of old age. “In a waiting room, everyone is standing in line. A girl enters, looking for somebody. She scans the room and when she gets to you she looks right through you as if you weren’t there. Old age begins right then”. Old age confronts not only with itself, but first with youth, from witch the elderly have much to learn, and then with objects that slip from their hands although those same old people will keep them alive. “When you stop working, life wavers: time loses its counterweight, its support, its adversary and its limit”. This little book also gives some advice on how to keep the old people alive, a population “that could heat up a whole city if only they would rub their hands together once a day in the same time”. The unpublished book by a great publisher that was also a great writer.