The cover of the new book by Matteo Colnago
The Society of performance? Paradoxically it does not require any excellence, but only results. Immediate, possibly. A conception that, among others, is also polluting the world of sport, hunting for ever new records that obscure the true sense of competitive disciplines. A sense of effort, suffering, perseverance: experiences that contribute to giving shape to any individual, to equip it with a center thanks to which to be in balance, in sporting activity but also in life. These are, only some of the concepts that emerge from the works of Matteo Colnago, 36 -year -old essayist Brianzolo with a past and a polyhedric present behind him “Fighter athlete“, To paraphrase the title of his first effort, published in 2021: first boxer, then mountaineer capable of reaching peaks of over 5 thousand meters, the latest of which in the summer of 2024, in Pakistan, when a storm prevented him from planting the tricolor on top of the Koshar Gang but not to do it at the top of two reliefs in the same area. A defeat? Not even for dream. “Life, sometimes, puts us in front of some obstacles – He had said even before leaving -. But not for this we have to surrender. Instead, we must bring out all our strength, enthusiasm, a spirit of reinventing yourself to find new solutions and alternatives“. A message that was addressed to the many Neetyoung people who, fatigued by a job search (and a place in the world) without results, have abandoned all hope.
Also to amplify and strengthen this message, in recent days, the tenacious Lombard climber has returned to the shelves with its second publication: “Destined to fight”which integrates and completes the first one after more than three years, always for the types of transition to the woods. They are texts, those of Colnago, who only focusing on the covers could seem intended exclusively for athletes and agonists: in fact, they are rather, real manuals for life, whose intent is to tear, with a sharp and erudite language but at the same time often raw as a punch in the stomach, many and incorrect beliefs of a contemporaneity that always pushes the human being more and more brain) in search of ephemeral pleasures and emotions, certainly useful to caress and tickle the hergular narcissism which, especially at the time of social networkrampant without more banks, but also aimed at making it, progressively, a consumer machine rather than a creature with spiritual depth.
The cover of the previous essay “The fighting athlete” (2021)
The fighter, however, be it a militant, an agonist or an intellectual, knows that the purpose of life is to find a sense, a center of gravity that can make it firm and firm in front of any storm. As Colnago recalls in his writing, economic crisis, pandemics and catastrophes of various kinds (lately reappeared in the hyper-phammatized and illusorously hyper-controlled life of contemporary man) have always accompanied the journey of humanity: to fall into despair and basking themselves in their frustrations, in some way motivating them exclusively with external factors and out of its own control, is not, however, is not a way, output. The psychological techniques and adaptive practices adopted by competitive sportsmen (and not only by them, as will discover who will read the book) are then needed as a model and starting point to face life and navigate in the daily storms of the liquid society by keeping the helm firm, even when the waves threaten to sink the ship.
In the book (indeed, in books) of Colnago there is no lack of ruthless lunges against other myths of the decadent contemporary western civilization, which is why their reading is not advisable to the faithful of the politically correct at any cost, even to that of bending reality to the most senseless and wicked victims’ victims. Discovering this author can, however, be healthy and necessary for anyone who feels the need for a compass, a valiant guide and an encouragement to remain standing in a world that seems more and more crazy, dark and chaotic.
Matteo Colnago