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Writer's pictureDaniel Letona

IV - Intermission

As I leave the Vatican, my head is flooded with ideas. Something went off in my brain, I feel as if one insignificant man can cause more impact than stars that will outlive our species. I saw a quote in the bookshop "The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark." -Michelangelo. I've made many silly statements in my life but it's the ambitious ones that have caused laughter, those are the ones for which I've been judged. The ones that burn me inside and steal my sleep. I'm not sure how but I want to find my own 16th chapel to paint and desire that everyone embarks on this journey, a society with purpose.


I'm hungry and I still haven't had a decent meal. I have plenty of time, the coliseum tour is at 2:45 pm. I see a nice restaurant across the street and walk in, I order a beer put on my headphones, and start writing. I get melon with prosciutto as advised by the waiter, while I wait for my shrimp risotto which I attempted to cook in Boston more than once. I look around right next to me, I see this couple laughing and just enjoying every single drink. I become curious about what they speak off, I cant understand their words which makes their laughter even more enjoyable. He is wearing a Rick and Morty shirt, I tell him I love Rick and Morty and ask him how he liked the last season. He laughs and says he loved it so much he watched it both in Russian and English, they are both from Ukraine. Diving instructors, who live in Croatia. We speak about Michael Angelo for a bit, it's the only thing I can honestly think of. He tells me he relates, someone saw Michael Angelo and said you sculpt faces go paint faces, "I was working in Egypt and some polish tourist came my boss said your from Ukraine they are from Poland go figure out how to speak with them" that is life, you adapt He continued.


I've always wanted to be in the Egyptian desert looking at the stars, the same stars everyone I've admired or loved cried with, laughed with, and was amused by. I ask him about Egypt and he tells me there are so many treasures under the waters something I had never considered, he quotes Jacques Cousteau the naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker the list can go on another renaissance man, one I grew up watching Sunday afternoons these moments might seem meaningless or coincidental as you read this but for me, this moment was special. We spoke about tattoos and we cheered, my food finally comes, and to be honest I didn't expect my shrimp to be judging me. The risotto was salty but then again I've only failed at cooking risotto so maybe that's the flavor. Andrea Bocelli plays in the background as I finish my meal.


I walk back to my temporary home to lay in bed and organize my thoughts before experiencing the coliseum. "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." - Albert Einstein, I realize I have been denying myself of experiencing life as a miracle, I let my intellect corner me into nihilism. I decide to walk to the Coliseum while rapping every single song in my hip-hop playlist out loud of course, and in order for everyone to enjoy my lyrics with a beat my notebook and pen become a percussion instrument, I didn't receive any reviews but I'm sure I murdered that beat...






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