ENG - Copertina - pag 01

page 04Bamboo JournalHappinessdi Giovanni Giò NeseI saw a happy man. A rare event, considering it was Monday!Josè came to visit me about a month ago. He came to collect his bamboo rod. By now I am more conidentwith bamboo and I am aware of what I am selling but it is still a very stressful situation. Everytime I compare it to my daughter’s wedding. You have accumulated stress for twenty years, hoping shewill leave the house and then when you see her leave you feel you have not completed her education,maybe it is not good enough for her future husband, perhaps in a few years she will come back homewith a couple of kids, that maybe you are not the good father you thought you were...Now, if you substitute the word “daughter” with “bamboo rod”, I feel the same way.Perhaps I’m not the great rodmaker I thought I was. I always start off with high hopes and big promisesof rigour and then along the way I realize there is something I could have done better, something thatis not as perfect as I had imagined and I accumulate stress.At the end the varnish dresses up the rod like the dress does the bride but I know that underneaththere is that tiny defect; he will not notice, only I know, but it is stressful. I examine it with a critical eyebut I am fed up with it in my garage, stretched out, hung up, tied… I must give it away quickly or I willbreak it up in pieces.The person that will pick it up is kept constantly updated on the work progress, he followed theconstruction phases and he is as tense as a violin, he will never spot the defect, he doesn’t see it. Itmust be the same special lining we use for the eyes of people who fall in love.Exhausted I give it away. But it is still stress.Italian Bamboo Rodmakers Association