There are different ways of listening: listening to an advice, to a lesson, to a song. Listening to nature and listening to God. Listening to the most fragile, to the different ones, to the others in general. Listening to ourselves, to our body, and to the interior world. All the ways of listening, if we include even that of ourselves, impose a human relationship. Everyone can be a source of growth and improvement.

We dedicated our October newsletter to the theme of listening—on the 21^st of October listening day was celebrated globally—as we believe that it is at the root of a dialogue, which in turn is the base of encounter, and is therefore, listening itself, a necessary step for brotherhood and peace.

We crossed the theme of listening with two different stories (and a third one), but in the end not too much because both are about listening to the other, to the most fragile (while the third one tells us about listening to our hearts).

The first story was that of Maria Montessori, a great Italian doctor and educationist who, in the beginning of the 1900’s, listened to diversity in a new way: particularly to the youth with disabilities, when they were labeled in a superficial manner, if not derogatorily. From there she built a method that she then exported to the children all over the world.

We seized an opportunity of a film dedicated to her: Maria Montessori—La nuovelle femme, directed by Lea Todorov, just released in cinemas. We chose to review it.

The second story at the center of this newsletter is that of Riccardo Bosi, an Italian pediatrician and writer of many interesting books, like his last one just released in bookstores entitled “The Thousand and a Childhood: Children, Cultures, Migrations.” It narrates of his work with many children around the world, in different vulnerable cases and migrants: the so-called “children of others.”.

Bosi learnt to listen to everything regarding them and their families. In the lengthy, nourishing, and formative interview he gave us, he tells us about this.

The third story (that we have borrowed from Cittanuova.it) is narrated by an ex-teacher, Annamaria Carobella, who, through the historic Gen Verde group, talks to us (also) about listening to an inspiration by an artist and of reciprocal listening when one works in a group.

There is then a fourth story that we advise you to read in this newsletter. It is a story that comes to us from Lebanon, and reading and listening to it is dutiful and necessary.