Dear members of the Cortona friends Association,
we are already in December, soon will be Christmas and the New Year. We all hope that the year 2021 will be more serene than the current one, so devilled by Covid and its human and economic toll.
There was no Cortona Week in 2020, we still have some feeble hopes for September 2021, but we cannot be sure. What to do with the Cortona idea in the meantime? Just wait and wait? It does not seem the right solution.
The Cortona team came to the conclusion that it is necessary to give some sign of active presence even in the time of Covid. Presently, this can only take place with the help of the Internet. We have chosen a very simple format, that we have called “the Cortona Pearls”.
Each Pearl will be presented monthly, a zoom broadcast of about one and half hour, given in English, simultaneously in Europe, East and West US coasts, and India. Each Pearl will consist of a short lecture by one of our great speakers -mostly those who were in our 2019 and 2020 Cortona program- followed by a round table discussion with a pre-established Cortona group; this will be followed by another session of questions from the participants from all over the world.
Of course, this is very little with respect to the richness and mutual exchanges of a real Cortona week; in particular our beautiful workshops will have to be dramatically shortened. We have however foreseen “Pearls” for some of them; and we will have even in our short zoom broadcasting excerpts from our classic Cortona workshops and musical events.
The “Pearl necklace” – the sequence of Pearls and calendar – will be disclosed shortly on our web page, with dates and titles, but we can anticipate that we have a fantastic series of speakers (let me just mention Fritjof Capra, Stuart Kauffman, Joan Halifax, Maneka Gandhi, Federico Faggin ) and many others.
Too many? Well, even if we start the real physical Cortona week later in 2021, we can still have a complementary monthly Pearl in parallel for a certain time.
The registrations for the Cortona Pearls will appear shortly on our web page, and by the help of social marketing agencies, will be diffused in the world. Please register quickly, we need to know how many people are interested. Later on, the link to the Pearl zoom will appears, you will be able to access it whereby we will recommend then a very modest donation.
And about the financial argument: it is somewhat sad to say that several of you, member of the APS Cortona Friends, have not yet honoured the yearly fee of 100 euro. This is then an urgent reminder, also to make clear that the Cortona week, which does not have sponsors, can only survive thanks to the support of the APS Cortona members. If we don’t receive at least that small contribution, we are going to be yet another victim of Covid.
Please make the bank transfer to: APS CORTONA FRIENDS, IBAN: IT 33N 01030 03202 00000 2274156
We are sure you will enjoy the Cortona Pearls and look forward to be, somehow, together again soon.
Luigi and the team