A Great Lesson in Life

“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” (Oscar Wilde)
Marco are you crazy?
You of all people put in YOUR Blog a picture of a fake cameo?
No my dear readers, I am getting old but I have not yet gone (totally) out of my mind because that picture makes sense, or at least it does for me ... and now I will tell you why
April 25, 1989, Venice was celebrating the traditional feast of St. Mark, the feast of the "boccolo" when young Venetians promise eternal love to their women by offering them a rosebud.
For those named Marco, like me, it is even a kind of second birthday, in short, a truly SPECIAL day!
I was euphoric, I remember that day like it was yesterday, I was 16 years old and I wanted to prove to everyone that I was capable and worthy of my family. I thought I already knew everything just because I was Bruno Jovon's son.
I was going to work after school, but I was "playing jeweler" because I had no experience but who hasn't been 16?
So it was that I peeked into a flea market and saw a cameo that I thought was ancient at a SUPER bargain price.
I bargained fiercely to pay even less for it, I admit I behaved even a little arrogantly, after all, I was only a greenhorn.
I went back to the store triumphant that I had won my little battle to show my father what a bargain had made his son, a good one!
I wanted, like any kid, for him to be proud of me.
My father gave me a good-natured smile, patted me and said, "Today you entered the world and got your first rip-off, because you bought a plastic cameo!"
Then he added, "I bet the price was super tempting and the seller gave the discount just for you."
Dad was a man of experience and knew well that the world has been spinning the same way for millennia.
Then he told me, "The bargain of a lifetime does not exist because when you make a deal there must be mutual respect and the buyer must be as happy as the seller."
Giving the right value to things also means paying the right price.
That is why the picture in this post is a plastic cameo!
This picture reminds me of a fundamental lesson: I only wanted to make the deal, I wanted to rip off and I got ripped off.
Above all, it reminds me of that great man of my father who did not scold me but stroked me because he knew that deep inside I felt very stupid.
Today that cameo is in our private collection in the store, it is in a corner but it still speaks to me.
After 35 years, I am not the same man, but that cameo still reminds me to remain humble because you never stop learning.
I hope you enjoyed this little story.
The biggest hug in the world
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