There is a well-known milestone toward which everyone, each within the limits of their own knowledge, would wish or try to strive. This debated moment is called "enlightenment." I, within the narrow circle of my relative certainty, believe I had my moment, in an ordinary bar on an ordinary evening.

I remember finding myself sitting at a table alone, as everyone else had been captivated by a rather somber fellow who was telling them things that made seemingly no sense at all. And, as we know, senseless commotion always catches us wide awake... madness always unearths a certain interest... and indeed those others, whom I could have defined as exceptionally attentive knowing them, leaned their faces toward him, surrounding him with lustful and dimly lit gazes as if they had never seen a drunk introvert. In itself, the scene was quite typical for that bar. Drunks passed through often and always left carrying with them the smile and bewilderment of someone who had come in peace to oust their demons within the family—among comrades, let's say. But when he, the somber man, began talking about the well-known politician and businessman Mr. Berlusconi (who at the time enjoyed considerable fame), between one statement and another, his head swaying all the while, he finally burst out dramatically with the following outburst: "...but then what? What is Berlusconi? Berlusconi is just a man!"

That was my moment. That 'just a man' had shot an arrow at me. I felt as if a window had been opened through my skull and I had only seen the world from that moment onward. The light came softly through that hole in my brain... the scene came into focus. I felt as though my eyes had opened after a long sleep. Even today I remember that moment so clearly that I can honestly admit, with the consent of feeling, that from that day on I became myself, thanks to a drunk fisherman.

*cover and image: Joseph Mallord William Turner - The fisherman