Journal – Donne e Ragazzi Casalinghi

HAPPY 2608

IN PRAISE OF SAPPHO AND THE THIASOS

Dear Friend,

let me present the calendar of the “ragazzi casalinghi” (home-loving boys).

As you see, the new year – the new cycle of the seasons – begins on 21 March with the start of spring, the season when life reawakens after its winter sleep.

The historical chronology, instead, starts from the birth of the Thiasos founded by Sappho, about 2608 years ago.

Other publications by the ragazzi casalinghi explain the reason for this numbering. Let me try to summarise it.

The Thiasos is first of all a school of life. It is permanent.

The Thiasos is a school centred on the culture and practice of relationships: among women – when Sappho founded it – and between women and ragazzi casalinghi, today. It is also centred on the culture of feelings and on sentimental education. That is, love, friendship, passions and eroticism are not opposed to reason, nor do they rank below the heights of the intellect. They are in a dialectical and symbiotic relationship. One of the achievements of Bettina Brentano’s romanticism was the practice of reflecting at the same time as one felt, suffered and acted. The simultaneity of living and practising self-awareness, as Carla Lonzi taught.

And again: the Thiasos is a school of everyday life, of living and knowing how to live the everyday and the body, restoring their cultural dignity.

And again: the Thiasos as the favourite place to live and work through the relationships of mother and daughter, mother and sister, aunt and niece. Recognising the power and joy of self-determined, convivial motherhood. Recognising female authority – above all an authority that comes from those who have best known how to listen to themselves and others, to question themselves and others, and to follow their own desires. Authority as the courage to face oneself and to face and manage situations, relationships and the unexpected.

And again: the Thiasos as a school of sharing, of communism among women and ragazzi casalinghi, strangers to the logic of the market but wise in knowing not only how to survive but how to live, transform and build a fulfilling society for themselves, for animals and plants, and in the end for all women and boys. And therefore exploring, developing and experimenting with integrated forms of production for the market, domestic production, personal care and group care.

And again: the Thiasos as the unity of authentic living and communicating with the making of the artistic works that follow from it. Living art and play in every gesture, feeling and moment, with no more opposition between low material life and high spiritual life.

And much more.

Best wishes and warm hugs,
Maia, daughter of Peppina and Elena

Written for the beginning of spring and of the new year 2608
Lainate, 13 March 2607 (1996)

See research