The utility of the useless - Letter by Pedro

Dear Lawrence:

Last Sunday I met my friend Jesus. He told me about a book he has read recently and found interesting.

The book is entitled: "La utilidad de lo inutil" written by Nuccio Ordine. An italian literature professor.

I bought it on Monday morning and began to read it.

To write an essay about the topic is far beyond my abilities.

To deal with this topic, this man, Ordine, offers in only 170 pages a salad with the opinions from: Dante, Aristoteles, Platon, Ovidio, Kant, Montaigne, Leopardi, Gautier, Garcia Marquez, Baudelaire, Keynes, Locke, Boccaccio, Garcia Lorca, Cervantes, Dickens, Heidegger, Ionesco, Calvino, Cioran, Gramsci, Euclides, and others... Just to mention a few.

This means that our topic has captured the interest of mankind all ever since the origin of time. Something similar has happened with religion.

So after beginning to read this book and hearing excerpts from his speeches on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nuccio+ordine

I come to the conclusion that our body needs to eat, drink and breath. For this we need some money. Easy.

And our spirit needs to read, think, hear music, love, pray, dance, travel, make sport, know people, dream, and things like these. Which are qualified as useless. For these we need a lifetime. Not so easy.

And so, is living useful? I'm rather confused now.

I beg your pardon if I don´t write a real essay. Instead I offer you and our friends this little approach to the question which got so many votes.

Thank you once again for your dedication Lawrence!

Yours sincerely

Pedro Rodriguez