When I was a kid I loved to watch on TV a German series about a circus family, the Flying Dorias, which had the degree scroll Salto mortale. It was, as some of you may remember, a family of Swiss trapeze artists who were about to embark on a European tour in the Krone Circus. I was so impressed watching the Doria's fly... They would climb to the top of the big top and sway back and forth as if they were floating in the dome of the sky. Unexpected things were always happening that caught me in front of the screen. When each episode ended, I loved to close my eyes and, while the soundtrack echoed in my head, I imagined that someday I could also travel around the world, and that maybe I would dare to do something as spectacular as jumping from one side to another without a network.

Those memories are in black and white, perhaps because more than fifty years have passed or perhaps because the technological revolution had not yet reached the television set in my house. The best thing about being a child is that limits do not matter, they blur, they do not condemn us or expel us from the life we want to live. You feel that you have the strength for everything, you experience that, with a little confidence and with the financial aid of those around you, everything can go ahead. One lives on the illusion, not on the false sense of euphoria, but on the inner joy that, with all one's heart and mind, anything is possible. And in a certain way it is so, not only when we are children, but when we do not lose confidence, when we maintain hope, when we are sustained by the love of our loved ones. The Doria's were a family... and you and I are lucky to have one, one of those that never fails.

Sometimes, those who are our real family do not have the same last name as us, but that is not important, because their presence makes us smile, their work feeds us, their care keeps us healthy, their caresses make us feel like we are flying... Yes, to love and be loved is like flying.

As we grow older, it is wonderful to remember, even if it is in black and white, that, from time to time, there is nothing like jumping without a network to relive the joy of love... All we have to do is take a leap and jump, with the security of holding the hands of the one who will never let us fall... because he loves us... To really fly, we have to jump without a network. If not, it is not love, because that authentic trust is missing. Flying has to give a little vertigo, because it means leaving the security of the earth behind, and jumping with our eyes set on the sky.