GUIDING LIGHTS

December, as it is our tradition, stresses on Christmas festivities to reinvigorate family ties and friendship – the guiding lights of our Rotarian life.
In Rotary, friendship is a mutual exchange of amicability, loyalty, and points of similarity – but it also, and above all, means working together to serve others.
Rotarian friendship, going beyond individual, personal and professional differences, thus implies a common vision of a way of life, aiming to achieve the Club’s purposes and serve those in need of help.
In other words, in Rotary, friendship and solidarity are intimately related, and this relationship is the source of the Rotary humanitarian action.
By virtue of my experience as a Rotarian, I have personally seen how, on their projects, the Clubs make the real values in life prevail over sham or non-values. I am thinking of their sensitivity to suffering, their sense of responsibility as regards the tasks taken on, and their attention to young people’s future. I am also thinking of how hard they work day after day, making not indifferent sacrifices, happy to do so and achieving tangible results.
At this time of Christmas festivities, I take the liberty of reminding something that riveted my attention when I was a child – and that probably also touched the hearts of many of you too: Andersen’s story of the little matchgirl.
You remember her don’t you – that little girl, cold, hungry, and alone on New Year’s Eve, who from the road stares longingly through the windows of houses where others are safe, well nourished, and warm?
Well, we cannot remain indifferent to the suffering and loneliness of children and adults. On the contrary, we want to do whatever we can to make our fellow humans’ life less unhappy.
This must be the aim of citizens sensitive to the needs of the community and must be the aim of committed, keen Rotarians – and we have to make all possible efforts to achieve it.
Alessandra Faraone
RC Milan
(Italy)
In Newsletter Family of Rotary and Membership
PHOTOS: serving colleagues on our service day in the bar at Los Angeles – Peter Nagelli (Brazil), Henrique Pinto (Portugal); Faraone, spouse of Alessandra (Italy) and Mario Camargo (Brazil); Alessandra Faraone (Italy)