Sunday in Harrisburg

God and country, the two powerful concepts of any American elections. And here an image that encapsulates them both, a huge flag inside a Catholic church in Harrisburg.

Our day starts really early, we are still jet-laged so we wake up at 6 am, I get up at 5 am. For me it is nice to get up and write in the dark, when everybody else is still asleep. I enjoy the darkness before the down of the day, this for me is the most productive time of the day, I have an enthusiasm and lucidiy of thoughts that during the day I loose as the hours go by. Below my picture in Harrisburg at 5 am in the morning while I am writing this blog.

This is going to be a long day, we have to drive for 5 hours to Akron, but before departing we want to see the Civil War museum and the city hall of Harrisburg. The museum opens at 12 noon so we decide to go for a walk along the river and then to the city hall.

Breakfast, I do my excercises for my tendinitis, my left arm is still huring me, shower and then we are ready to go. Yes I am putting some lipstic on. It is 7 am of a Sunday and I need some colours on my face..

We walk along the river, the air is crisp and the river is empty. Joggers pass us by. It is so peaceful and normal and nice that you cannot avoid thinking about how your life would have been if you had been born here instead of in Rome. Would I have married the son of my next door neighbour, have 4 kids and become a teacher?

We walk along the river and talk about everything, our life, our friends , politics which is always present, and we watch river slowing moving along. I confess we are all curious and interested in learning something about this country, but it is very early in the morning and there is no one we can talk to, ask questions, find out about what really goes on in the US.

We are open to any interpretation, my Italian friends are forcing themselves to leave behind their idea of America shaped by the media, I ditched any idea of this nation long time ago. A country where I spent a lot of time of my life, a country I loved for many reasons it has become the great unknown for quite some time.

9 am we finally go to the city hall.

As we drive to the street leading to the city hall we see many people going to church, they are dressed in strangely attractive clothes, the women wear long shirts and dresses which looked old fashioned, the men are also wearing clothes in the fashion in the 1950s. Are they Amish we ask ourselves? They are not.

Their clothes are incredibly attractive, a mix of old and new and they are all smiling. And the children, the children seem to have popped out of an old album, all dresses as the parents in miniature clothes, hair very short, the boys with shirts and ties and the girls with while short socks and black shining shoes.

We realise they people walking int the church are families with lots of kids.

They are smiling in the sunshine, happy, friendly. As I stand in front of the church a young mother of 5 kids tells me she loves my hair, I thanks her and say she also looks very nice.

I walk with her in the church and this is what I see.

The curch is full of people, I look around and I understand that these are farmers families coming for Sunday mass. The mass is a singing mass in Latin and they all participate fully. I am projected back to my childhood when I also wore those clothes on Sundays and went to church with my parents.

Time has been frozen here for a long time and in this magical stillness life has been going on.

What will these people vote for, or even better 'will these people vote?' I realised I do want them to vote because they are the soul of America, the descendants of the people who came to populate this continent. But then I notice that everybody is while, they are mostly blond with blue eyes ... where are the blacks and the ethnic minorities?

Catholicism in America is predominantly white and this spectacular sunny morning the many churches along this road in Harrisburg are welcoming while farmers, only while farmers with their family.

At the end of the service we meet the bishop, he speaks good Italian because he has spent a lot of time in Rome. We talk about the pope, the Jubilee and the charm and beauty of Rome.

He is very friendly and invites us to visit the church.

He does not say who he will vote for but I know that the Catholic church has 'unofficially' suggested followers to vote for Harris. However, most of the members are leaning on Trump.

Why? Many reasons among which this one:

So here we are another majour split inside America.