Cristina-Gabetti-I-Share-Hope

Cristina Gabetti

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Hope is an emotional experience. It’s a burning desire that I couple with faith, which is a rational choice to believe that my hopes will or can come true. The courage to dream nurtures hope and then comes a practical side, the perseverance to keep replenishing courage to dream and to hope. I am Cristina Gabetti and I Share Hope. –Cristina Gabetti

My focus: to promote knowledge dialogue and collaboration between different proponents with the desire to accelerate positive change through media, events and in daily actions.

Bi cultural and bilingual (American-Italian).

Professional journalist in Italy since 1991.

Experience: from pop culture to sustainable living, spirituality and the impact of technology on individuals and on our society.

After 12 years of entertainment reporting for Italian national TV, during which I interviewed world pop icons and broadcast live, I curated Abitare TV, a satellite channel on architecture, design and lifestyle.

In 2003 I chose to act upon my concern for the environment and, while doing research, began experimenting solutions to narrow the gap between what we know and how we live.

This resulted in greening my household – I am mother of three – and writing a book: Tentativi di Eco Condotta, Rizzoli, 2008 – both were a success.

A month after publication I was asked to write and host a weekly TV segment on Striscia la notizia, the most successful long running show on Italian television (Canale 5). Occhio allo Spreco became a cult, and was followed by an average of 5 million people a week for 5 years.

In 2010 Rizzoli published my second book, Occhio allo Spreco (same title as TV segment), in paperback with BUR in 2011.

In 2010 I also wrote Tondo Come il Mondo (Fondazione Ambienta -Giunti Progetti Educativi) for children age 8-10, an experiential guide to interconnectedness, that explains how natural cycles and recycling respond to the same principles and teaches how awareness and behavior can make a difference.The manual has been distributed for free in Italian elementary schools for the fifth consecutive year, reaching 350.000 children.

From 2012 to 2014 I wrote the daily column A Passo Leggero on the summer pages of Corriere della Sera, narrating my experience with sustainable and regenerating practices. In October 2014 Bompiani released my fourth book A Passo Leggero, empathic stories written in the spirit of the column, illustrated by the poetic and ironic artist Ramuntcho Matta, At the center of the book, an interview with neuroscientist Giacomo Rizzolatti, who discovered the mirror neuron, confirms that we are naturally wired to feel with others. Rizzolatti agrees that our society needs empathy more than ever.

In 2014 I reported from Silicon Valley for Occhio al Futuro (Striscia la notizia) and Futuro Presente (Corriere.it)

I speak at conferences and moderate debates.

 

Cristina Gabetti

Il mio obiettivo: promuovere dialogo conoscenza e collaborazione tra menti diverse per accelerare l’impatto positivo sulla società attraverso i media, incontri e nella vita quotidiana.

Bi-culturale e bilingue (Italiano, Americano).

Giornalista professionista dal 1991.

Esperienza: Dalla cultura pop alla sostenibilità e il nostro rapporto con le tecnologie e la spiritualità.

Dopo 12 anni da cronista rock per Mediaset a intervistare le grandi icone del nostro tempo, ho curato Abitare TV, canale satellitare su architettura design e stili di vita.

Nel 2003 ho seguito la voce del cuore e, madre di tre, ho iniziato a indagare sull’impatto dei nostri stili di vita. Scoprendo il grande divario tra ciò che sappiamo e come viviamo, ho sperimentato soluzioni “a prova di futuro”. Un percorso appassionante e ricco di opportunità che mi ha portato a trasformare abitudini, condividere esperienze e incontrare protagonisti del cambiamento.

Il mio primo libro, Tentativi di Eco Condotta (Rizzoli, 2008) mi ha portato in TV, a Striscia la notizia, con la rubrica Occhio allo Spreco (2008-2013), diventata cult.

Nel 2010 Rizzoli pubblica il libro omonimo, approfondimento della rubrica: Occhio allo Spreco, (Rizzoli, 2010, BUR 2011)

Sempre nel 2010 Fondazione Ambienta e Giunti Progetti Educativi pubblicano il mio manuale per bambini Tondo come il Mondo, illustrato da Piero Corva. Distribuito gratuitamente da 5 anni in classi di 3-5 elementare, ha sinora raggiunto 350.000 bambini.

Dal 2012 al 2014 ho tenuto la rubrica quotidiana A Passo Leggero sulle pagine estive del Corriere della Sera. Nel 2014 Bompiani pubblica  A Passo Leggero, storie di empatia scritte nello spirito della rubrica; al centro, un’intervista con il neuro-scienziato Giacomo Rizzolatti, scopritore del meccanismo specchio, conferma quanto siamo tutti connessi. I disegni dell’artista poetico e ironico Ramuntcho Matta affondano nell’inconscio.

Nel 2014, dopo un viaggio nella Silicon Valley, sono nate le rubriche Occhio al Futuro a Striscia la notizia e Futuro Presente, su Corriere.it, dove indago il nostro rapporto con le tecnologie e l’impatto che hanno sulla società.

Modero e partecipo a dibattiti.

“At the time of our recording Cristina mentioned Pope Francis’ encyclical which had not been published yet. After reading it, she graciously agreed to come back and share her thoughts regarding Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’. Episode 42 part 2: Cristina Gabetti – Understanding Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’ contains her insightful comments and hopeful expectations.”


42  Cristina Gabetti – Tina Turner, Sustainability, #Hope – #isharehope


42 part 2 Cristina Gabetti – Understanding Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’


42  Cristina Gabetti – Tina Turner, Sustainability, #Hope – #isharehope

Hope is an emotional experience. It’s a burning desire that I couple with faith, which is a rational choice to believe that my hopes will or can come true. The courage to dream nurtures hope and then comes a practical side, the perseverance to keep replenishing courage to dream and to hope. I am Cristina Gabetti and I Share Hope. –Cristina Gabetti

Intro:

Welcome to I Share Hope! The podcast where world leaders share their real stories of hope and how you can use actionable hope to start changing your life today and now here’s your host, Chris Williams.

Chris Williams:

Cristina Gabetti, it is so fun to have you with us today. You’re there in Italy, I understand, and I’m going to get into more and more of what you do and your work in the world and for the world. You’re a brilliant person in using your creative power in such a strong direction to help our planet. So first of all, before we jump into all that, tell us a little more about you, you can get into some of that if you want to, but what are you doing today, where are you and what’s coming up for you?

Cristina Gabetti:

As the first thing, thank you very much. I’m very honored to be part of this journey. I’m exploring presently, empathy as a driver of change. My urgency is to support our necessary evolution towards future proof practices – so, sustainable, regenerating nourishing. As a practical ecologist, I have a hard time with the slow pace of transition from collective apathy towards awareness.
After years of reporting about the eco way in all walks of life, I’m now investigating the potential of our natural wiring, which is to belong. I do that by meeting and interviewing scientists and by practicing empathy. It’s a form of exercise. It gives me great satisfaction.

I have recently published my fourth book, it’s in Italian, the title is A Passo Leggero which would translate as treading softly. It doesn’t sound as good in English as it does in Italian. It’s an invitation to be open and kinder first of all with ourselves and to connect – to connect with nature, to connect with other people, to connect with all living creatures. The book is a collection of intimate experiences that anyone can relate to about calming our inner chaos relating to loved ones who often trigger the worst in us and relating to nature. As a proof that these practices actually can be of practical support, I interviewed Professor Giacomo Rizzolatti who discovered the mirror neuron or the neuron of empathy. He has proven that we’re all soft-wired to feel with others. So basically, we just need to plug in the cables.

I also produced a series for TV and for web from Singularity University at NASA Ames in the Silicon Valley. It was a great chance to talk to leading scientists about what the future looks like. The more and more I got into AI and technology, which is deeply fascinating, the more I trusted. It confirmed my gut feeling which is we want to nurture our humanness before machines take over. They are slipping into our lives in so many ways that I think the risk is that we numb our consciousness.

Today, a few hours ago, I was at a school talking to children because I also wrote a book that’s been distributed for free in elementary schools and it’s the fourth consecutive year. Basically, I spoke to them about being aware of what a supply chain means. I’m trying to question them as to whether they understand that a product that costs very little on the shelf actually brings close to nothing to the people who are making it way down the line and they were incredibly receptive. Children are naturally holistic and I think they get linearized, you know, as education takes a bigger and bigger role in their lives. They’re still small enough at that age. They were 3rd, 4th and 5th graders, elementary school to really get it, so it’s incredibly satisfying.

Chris Williams:

Before we started the interview, we were talking and you’re in Milan, Italy right now and there is a world expo about the health of our planet in Italy this summer. Are you involved in any of that right now?

Cristina Gabetti:

I initially thought – well the theme is feeding the planet. Energy for life is really my mantra. I mean to me, feeding the planet is what I seek in my every moment. So, I thought that it was perfectly up my alley, but I had a hard time at the beginning with the meta organization, finding a place that was really coherent with what I felt. It’s taken off now, but what’s happening is that a lot of people are actually bringing the conversation to this level and those people are inviting me to talk. I will probably also do some reporting from there. That will start pretty much – I’ll be there in June a bit and then I’d like to go as it evolves because it goes on until the end of October. Probably as time goes by, they’ll get closer and closer to the true mission which is not to have a food fair, but to show how we can sustainably feed everyone because we produce food for 12 billion, but we’re just about 7 billion and 1 billion almost dies of hunger. So, we know that the problem is in the distribution more than in the production and many people instead keep on insisting that we need to produce more food while my take is that we really need to waste food less. We need to empower people at a level so that they can be either producing locally or really having local foods available at a convenient price. Sadly in our supermarkets, we’ve got oranges from Valencia costing much less than oranges from Sicily. That’s got to change.

Chris Williams:

Yes. Same way over here in the US. Well, I look forward to following you along through the summer because I know in social media we’ll post your links later and talk through where we can find you, but you’ll be a great resource to track what’s going on over there at the expo. Cristina, you know how this works. We are asking 1000 leaders around the world the same five questions and gathering that together so we can use that to learn hope and begin to build hope and share hope in our communities locally and globally. So the first question, I would love to hear your answer.

Question 1: What is your definition or your favorite quote about hope or your belief about hope in that direction?

Cristina Gabetti:

I will give you both a definition and a quote. My definition is that hope is an emotional experience. It’s a burning desire that I couple with faith which is a rational choice to believe that my hopes will or can come true. So, the courage to dream nurtures hope and then comes a practical side, the perseverance to keep replenishing courage to dream and to hope.

My favorite quote today is “what you seek is seeking you” and it’s by the euphemistic Rumi. His poems have transcended borders of all kinds, both physical and the borders within ourselves, so between mind, body and spirit. My favorite hope quote as a child was “the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true” from The Wizard of Oz. I think that’s really what had me looking at the sky and thinking that we can definitely be part of that bigger picture if we are brave enough to just send our hopes and desires out into the world.

Chris Williams:

I love all of those. Love The Wizard of Oz for sure and the dreams that we dare to dream really do come true – that’s a great quote. I haven’t heard that in a long time. That’s great.

Cristina Gabetti:

The practical side often refers to Nelson Mandela, “it always seems impossible until it’s done” because we have such a long list of wish lists and hope lists and dreams that then, it seems like such a huge task to make them happen. I think, Mandela, not only was he a figure of deep hope, but that sentence is posted on my desk because it makes me feel like sooner or later I’ll be able to go through that list.

Chris Williams:

Well, with that definition then and your quotes in mind,

Question 2: Who’s shared the most hope with you in your life?

Cristina Gabetti:

I think overall, my family in the sense that my parents gave me the opportunities to flourish. Kind of like a playing field to find my place in and they encouraged me to believe in myself and we know it’s not enough to make the experience real, but I trusted the source of the love and support and I deeply respected their values. The morale basically was things don’t come easy, go fetch and know what you want. So, I worked hard setting goals incrementally because, I think, when you ask people what they want, we all want the same thing. We want to be healthy, we want love, we want to feel safe, we want to feel recognized.

So, when I brought it to a calendar, to a linear timeline which unfortunately we still go by, I think first it was to adapt in a new world because I moved from the United States to Italy when I was nine and I really felt like I had been parachuted from Mars because I spoke funny, I had buck teeth, I wore knee-highs. I don’t know if you remember Oliver Hardy, the comedy?

Chris Williams:

Yes, absolutely.

Cristina Gabetti:

In Italy, it was very popular at that time and it was dubbed and they spoke pretty much like I spoke. [speaks Italian] I would make people laugh, but being laughed at is not necessarily making your journey into a new culture easier. So basically, the love in the nest is what gave me most hope.

Chris Williams:

It’s great and a great mantra that your parents had going early on. You have just been invested into and it’s just a great story. I think that’s a great example for me. I’ve got a couple of kids, I’ve got five….

Cristina Gabetti:

Five!

Chris Williams:

A great reminder to just invest on those kids and just help them pursue, in a rational way, their dreams and goals, not just haphazardly, but very directed. What a great opportunity.

Question 3: Take us to a time and walk us through a section of your life where hope may have seemed hard to reach. What was going on?

You seem like you’re in this wonderfully successful place and a beautiful place in the world and you’ve got a lot of things going for you. It would be hard to imagine how you would have anything that would really challenge your hope.

Cristina Gabetti:

I think the first intense hope that I felt, hope where you didn’t see any rational solution was when my mother fell ill and I was just out of college. The fear of losing her was heart-wrenching and I discovered the deep loneliness of fear. All the way, I expressed hope just by loving her deeply and by doing my best to support her healing. I’ve just taken a macrobiotic cooking class and I put that to work and she was also very creative and I encouraged her to get that energy flowing. I used hope by doing. I think prayer is certainly an important dimension in any form or fashion, but then it’s doing that can actually root you into a process that has to evolve such as an illness that you hope that someone will heal from. So, she did heal and lived to meet my husband and her grandchildren and putting hope into action became a constant at that point in my life. Always driven by support or by the longing for love.

Another dark moment came when after my third child was born. The project that I was working on folded. Again, that was an evolutionary movement, so I’ve been a rock and roll reporter and I’ve been very successful at doing it, but I felt very frustrated by the daily news format. Sound bites basically and so I was offered an opportunity to work on a satellite channel – wow, a whole channel on architecture and design. After a year though, unexpectedly, for a series of circumstances, that project folded and I was also pregnant with my third child. My husband suggested that I do some writing and I embarked on a journey that led me through the traps of ego because, you know, I was used to going to concerts, access all areas, interviewing Mick Jagger and Tina Turner and Elton John and this and that and it was really because of my English also. The point of reference here for most of those people. I had to totally reconfigure my road map, so what did I want? At that time, happy, healthy kids were really my biggest priority.

So, I didn’t have a secure position and that’s where I put all my energy. I now understand the wisdom of that uncertainty. That’s another great slogan from Deepak Chopra, you know, “embrace the wisdom of uncertainty”. It’s hard to see the wisdom when you’re in an uncomfortable place, but of course I wouldn’t have taken all the turns that then brought me to where I am now if that project hadn’t folded. I’d say that’s how I used hope in two difficult moments.

Chris Williams:

Great examples. They really are. Thank you for being honest with us and letting us see into that world because it really is, you know, you see somebody down the road and it’s hard to imagine that there has been reason to have a need for hope, well sure it always works out for them, but everybody is real and everybody has got a real life back there.

Question 4: How are you sharing hope today?

What are you doing in your daily life that’s building hope in someone else? How do you go about that?

Cristina Gabetti:

Okay, well going back to that moment of uncertainty, I then became a mother of three and I began doing research on the state of the environment. I was an ecomom in training and the more I learned, the more I felt compelled to narrow that huge gap between what we know and how we live. I had data on one side as to how we’re overshooting nature’s capacity to regenerate and on the other side, I was experimenting with solutions, solutions, solutions until by serendipity, I met a man who suggested I collect my experiences and my tools in a book. How to deliver was a big question. I wanted to share hope. I wanted to share possible ways out of this kind of quick sands, these quick sands that we’re in and I didn’t want to preach, so I created the cast of nine unsustainable characters that reflect parts of us and after describing their daily routines, I went in and had conversations with them and delivered data and solutions. That formula really worked.

It brought me on to a journey of other books and TV series and always coupling knowing and feeling. So, I’d say that what I do today is I really try and share the real experience, the challenges we have to face that I don’t stop at the negative and I don’t try to break down those barriers with violence or by reacting rather through proactive behavior. We have so many ways to really be more sustainable and more respectful and more aware of how closely interconnected we are with this wonderful planet that we’re living on. It does not need us as much as we need it. Discovering, for example, that we’re not only interconnected with the natural elements, but were interconnected amongst each other and the discovery of the mirror neuron really proves that. It’s fascinating. Our brains are made to feel with others and often we disconnect and we isolate and so I’m trying to reconnect by sharing my experiences, but always with a universal dimension at the end where anyone can feel that they’ve walked their path or they might encounter that type of challenge.

Chris Williams:

Perfect. Perfect example and you’re really leading into question 5. I think you’ve done interviews before. It just seems that you have, I don’t know…

Question 5: Give us some really basic action steps, the A, B, Cs of how we can share hope or grow in hope personally. Just give us a pattern. How do we follow this?

Cristina Gabetti:

Okay, well it’s a very personal pattern, but making time for yourself. I think to re-center and nourish the soul is fundamental. Stepping out of our minds and tapping into our hearts. I think that we live in a time that requires that more and more. Visualizing, I really try and give a shape and image or form to what I really would like to attract. I’m a big believer in the power of attraction and synchronicity often puts opportunities to evolve on our path. Now, seeing them or not is a question of how connected we are with our source. I found great purpose in practicing sustainability and making it joyful and creative. So, I’ve trained myself to the point where I turn lights out in other people’s homes and not always do they appreciate that or asking a bar man to close the faucet when it’s running for no reason. I sometimes overstep my ground, but that’s par for the course.

My three nephews are growing up in my children’s clothes because I’ve always chosen quality over quantity, so it means that things have kept well. I say quality over quantity is my mantra in everything from what we eat – we know how unsustainable most chicken farming is, so I’ll spend more to have a chicken that has grown as an animal and not as an object. It will cost me a bit more, but I’ll eat less chicken. Again, unfortunately as we know, local foods sometimes cost more, but if you’re really aware of not wasting, then that investment is worth it. We drink tap water and treat mineral water kind of as a medicinal, so we’ll drink it to maybe replenish the minerals that our body might need, but otherwise on an average, we drink tap water which is not huge for Americans, but it’s huge for Italians because we have the largest number of mineral water sources, so everyone puts bottled water on their table. If you do that, you’d want to choose a source that’s close to you or if you really need a certain type of water, then again you’re treating it as a medicine. I dilute my shampoo and my hair is much healthier and the product lasts much longer. I avoid all household products and products for the body that contain those nasty invisible chemicals. We’ve reduced plastic to the bare essentials. I haven’t bought a notepad in years because we still get far too much paper in our homes, so we just recycle it. It’s a long, long string of actions. I use the starch water that we boil our pasta in to rinse off our dishes because that water is great to really remove the oils and the fats from our plates.

We eat meat really only twice a week. I would be a total vegetarian actually, but my family likes meat and I have a hard time putting two menus on the table. So, when they ask for it, it has to be healthy and it’s reduced to an amount that can be also globally sustainable. We get our fingers dirty as much as we can by doing some gardening, by really being in contact with that wonderful process of growth from a seed to a plant and then we try to generate seeds for the next year, so we’re not buying seeds and we don’t really know where they come from. I try to really focus on positive information. It’s hard – it’s hard also because we can’t completely avoid what’s going on in this day and time, but I think that media really does need, it does require selective attention. Otherwise, we fall into the trap of fear again and we feel like witnessing all these mass destruction that our single actions might be powerless. Instead, I’m a big believer in critical mass, you know, you put a pot of water to boil on the flame and it’s the 10% that’s transformed that can then bring the following 90% to transform. So, if 10% of the planet, 10% of our human population gets it, I think that we could rapidly and exponentially evolve into better times.

Also, our use of technology, I think, needs to be aware. I try and tell my kids that now that our phones are working on 4G, that’s a huge amount of – I’m sometimes having a hard time finding the words in English, but of microwaves. 4G emits a lot of microwaves and it’s like putting our head in the oven. So, we need to really limit the amount of time that we spend on our devices also because that’s taking time away from direct contact with other people and I think that’s vital to stay human. I could go on for hours because I’ve written three books about this, but you might want me to stop at this point.

Chris Williams:

I’m taking notes as fast as I can. This is great. So, to summarize you’re A, B and C which I think turned into A through Q, though you really got this into three main groups. You had the morning ritual, that morning time where you are able to reset your center and bring it back and get focused mentally, spiritually and physically just to get ready for the day. Great idea. That was number one.
Number two was your visualization of where you want to go and what you’re trying to accomplish, what you’re trying to do around you and the relationships you have and in your work, et cetera. You’re really putting a lot of energy into that thing mentally before you launch out and do it. I think that’s a powerful practice.

Then the third, all the other letters you went through here, those are the practicing and the practical aspects you talked about where you’re doing something about it. Whatever it is that’s coming through your heart – whoever is listening that’s saying ‘I need to start doing this to live a healthier life or be a better part of my community or share hope in a certain way’, you’re doing it. You’re just practicing what you’re preaching and what you’re thinking and what you’re learning. Getting some action. Not being paralyzed.
Okay, how can we follow along with what you’re doing in life? You’ve got websites, social media, all those places. Give us a few examples that we can jump on to.

Cristina Gabetti:

Okay, I have a blog which is www.cristinagabetti.com. It’s in Italian now, but the content from last year, the videos that I have published, most of the videos in fact because previously I wasn’t really publishing too many, are in English. The title is in Italian, but the content is in English and it’s subtitled and I’m now working on making a twin blog in English. Certainly there, the whole Silicon Valley, the whole Singularity University experience is as much as the title might – you know, the title is in Italian, but the content is in English. I’m on Twitter as again, @cristinagabetti, most often in Italian but again I’m moving into my brave new step – it’s to move out of the Italian boundaries and move into the English-speaking world. On Facebook I have a page, again, don’t have too much imagination there, but again it’s Cristina Gabetti. I’m in Milano and I can be found in my neighborhood.

Chris Williams:

I love that. You know, there are so many tools now on our web browsers, Safari, Chrome, Windows, whatever you use that translate a lot of these things. So, I’ve actually looked at your blog and it’s pretty simple to convert that to English right there.

Cristina Gabetti:

Would I like the English? I don’t know because I’m so picky at how words are put together. I’ve never tried it, but I think I will try. Anyway, you found me and that was such a wonderful moment. Just to say how hope nourishes hope. The fact that you found me in the wide world web was really – it felt quite lovely. Thank you.

Chris Williams:

It feels great to have you talk to us too. You would not like the way the Italian is translated into English by the Google machine, but you would like it a lot better than my understanding of reading Italian. It helps me at least get part way there and there’s a lot of great stuff on your blog. I’ll put all these links at our webpage as well at isharehope.com.
Well Cristina, you’ve been a privilege to talk to. Thanks for sharing so much hope with all of us listening and I can’t thank you enough. I hope you have a fantastic summer there with the World Expo and a busy Italy this summer. You’re going to have a good time.

Cristina Gabetti:

Thank you so much and I wish all the best to you and I look forward to a link, so I can then share these stories and all the wonderful ones that you’re having on the show.

Chris Williams:

I will share this with you definitely.

Cristina Gabetti:

I look forward to seeing the list grow and bravo. Thank you for what you’re doing.

Chris Williams:

Thank you. Have a good day.

Cristina Gabetti:

You too.

You’ve just listened to I Share Hope. If you’re ready to make a change, head to our website at isharehope.com and claim your free copy of the Top Ten Actions of Hope from World Leaders to use hope in your own life. Thanks for listening and we’ll talk to you next time.

Chris Williams:

So, you’re someone who knows the value of a good question and knows how to ask it. Who would you want to ask a question and what would the question be? Pick your question and pick your person. Best question, best person.

Cristina Gabetti:

Okay, that will require a moment of thought. Well, you know, I was thinking the other day, in my last book, I interviewed a woman who is 91 years old and her name is Giulia Maria Crespi. She founded the Italian National Trust, it’s called FAI. She has hopelessly tried to bring the importance of ecological awareness to top world leaders. Actually, the pope is coming out with an… What’s an enciclica called with? I’m going to have to give you this answer with proper words. Let me just pull it up on word reference because he’s coming up with an official document. Encyclical. Okay.

Chris Williams:

Nice.

Cristina Gabetti:

An encyclical. Who would I want to ask a meaningful question to? Well, I would like to ask Pope Francis about the encyclical that he is in the process of writing, which is an invitation to protect the environment. I would really like to know – I’m curious as much as it’s about to come out, but I would like to know whether he actually feels that in his gut or whether it’s a religious path that he’s going to take to bring out the information because I’ve always wondered why top leaders in all faiths don’t bring their power to really deliver that important message. Let’s feel connected with this place that we belong to.

Then, I’d like to ask an alien in outer space how we look. I mean do they get an idea of all the wonderful intelligence that’s manifested here? I’m afraid that massively we seem quite stupid and I think that’s too bad because there’s so much intelligence at work or maybe they go beyond just a simple appearance and they can tap into all the wonderful intelligence that’s being expressed here.

Chris Williams:

Music. If you need to put something in your headphones that’s just going to get you back on track and get you pumped up, what are you going to listen to as a past rockstar interviewer?

Cristina Gabetti:

Well you know, it’s interesting because I live with music in my physical space for many years. You know what my favorite music is now? It’s the subtle sounds that nature, at this time, is expressing and they’re actually not subtle when you tap into them. I was going to the school this morning and if I had been plugged into my headphones, I would have missed a blackbird who was humming so beautifully and so creatively. Nature’s song is really what I’m appreciating right now and the sound of silence which is not too easy to find because even when I go into meditation, there is a lot of noise in my mind. Then, I’ve gone back to listening to Mozart because I really do feel it’s harmonizing my brain and then you know, I have my kids blasting all kinds of R&B. They pump up the volume and I’m not paying this much attention to what they’re listening to as I’d like to, so I think I’m in the moment of seeking quiet and maybe catching a sentence while people are walking down the street that can give me a cue or open my awareness to something that I’d like to look into more.

Chris Williams:

That’s a great, great way to put that. It’s a great example too. I was camping with my wife and kids over the weekend, the holiday weekend here and we got back really late the other night and it was a little after midnight and we were finishing up cleaning out the car and my son and I, he’s nine, we walked outside and there was a mocking bird singing in the middle of the night. We turned off everything around the house. We were just out there and listening to it because the city was quiet for a minute and it was beautiful. We hardly get to hear those sounds anymore.



42 part 2 Cristina Gabetti – Understanding Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’

“It’s quite comforting to hear someone as powerful and as global as the pope really use words and take leads into the very vast problem of our relation with the environment in a way that we feel profoundly connected to that is also so coherent with his acts of simplicity which have surprised the world. He is really stripping down to the bare essentials. I am Cristina Gabetti and I Share Hope.” ~Cristina Gabetti

Changing the world from Milan, Italy, Cristina Gabetti, is supporting evolution from the era of information to the era of knowledge. As a journalist, author, environmentalist, mother and grandmother Cristina has proven to be an intergenerational leader in sustainable global health initiatives.

Cristina Gabetti

Intro:

Welcome to I Share Hope! The podcast where world leaders share their real stories of hope and how you can use actionable hope to start changing your life today and now here’s your host, Chris Williams.

Chris Williams:

Since our last interview, you have read some of the documents the pope has released and I think you have some updates. I’m just curious as can be to hear what you’re thinking and what you’d like to talk about. So really, this is your time. I really want to hear what you have to say and looking forward to really sending it out to the I Share Hope audience.

Cristina Gabetti:

I am very grateful to you for round two because at the time of our first recording, Pope Francis’ encyclical had been announced, but it hadn’t been published yet. My question to him, which was how dogmatic was this document going to be, has been answered by reading the encyclical which is called Laudato Si’, the title is taken from St. Francis’ Canticle of Creatures, Praise Be To You My Lord.

Not only is the encyclical on care for our common home very effective at delivering information about the consequences of our behavior on the planet, but it analyzes the root causes and how interconnected they are and how interconnected we are with all living beings. It’s quite comforting to hear someone as powerful and as global as the pope really use words and take leads into the very vast problem of our relation with the environment in a way that we feel profoundly connected to that is also so coherent with his acts of simplicity which, you know, have surprised the world. He is really stripping down to the bare essentials.

Its 233 pages divided in six chapters and we go from what is happening to our home, to the gospel of creation and the human root of the ecological crisis, holistical ecology, guidelines for action and ecological education and spirituality. There are so many parts that you really want to underline that are quotes that can really become moments of reflection. They are often in very practical guidelines, but the most surprising thing I think is that he asked Carlo Petrini who is the Founder of The Global Movement Slow Food to write the Preface. Carlo Petrini is not a believer and he says that in the first page of his preface. That gives a powerful message as to how global the pope would really like this document to be – reaching people who believe in any kind of God or people who don’t believe. It’s a call for responsibility, for action, for awareness, I’d say, beyond any religion. I thought that was quite bold and quite powerful and obviously Petrini’s words are very inspiring and wonderful.

Chris Williams:

Are there any other encyclicals do you know of that the pope has called on someone who is not a believer in the Catholic sense to really join in that document or in the work? I mean that’s a pretty bold thing to do honestly. I think he would get some push back from that, but I think it’s great.

Cristina Gabetti:

Well, I’m a practicing Catholic, but I have to be very honest with you, I have never read an encyclical because I’ve always thought – probably St. John Paul II had moments of enlightenment that could have reached all, but on a regular basis they were certainly very dogmatic and intellectual documents. This instead is very poetic, it’s bold, it’s hands-on. It was immediately received in some circles in the United States as being anti-capitalist but it’s not. It’s quite honestly, going to the root causes of this attitude of just taking and taking and taking and not taking into account the fact that nature needs to regenerate itself.

Chris Williams:

Yes, I agree.

Cristina Gabetti:

Then it’s beautiful because it ends with two prayers and one is for anyone who believes in love and life and then the second one is for Catholics. You have this practical tongue that’s set off with Petrini’s preface and then you have prayer. It’s wonderful to see how these two meet. He is very direct in saying that certainly prayer is not enough and certainly we need faith to believe and to hope that the power of our actions can actually lead us to this revolution. In the end, I think there’s enough joy in just simply the fact that he believes that it is possible, but you read a sense of urgency and also of great knowledge. He definitely read all the science, very interesting where he praises the value of science, but he also indicates possible limitations same with technology which of course he uses because he tweets. He’s very contemporary and I think everyone should read it. It’s been translated into English and it can be downloaded with a click.

Chris Williams:

I’m going to make sure we put that download on the site with this interview because I’m with you. I think it’s really rare – I’m impressed you’ve…I’m surprised actually. I figured you’ve read a bunch of these type things because you’re so well-read and so articulate, but I would be hard-pressed to find anybody else that I would know that has ever read an encyclical because just the name itself sounds daunting.

Cristina Gabetti:

Exactly. The last time I actually had to look up the translation.

Chris Williams:

A guy like him who is making practicing faith so real-life. I’m not a Catholic and I unfortunately don’t know as much as I should about the faith and practice of Catholicism, but I’m really intrigued by this pope because he seems just down to earth and honest and like a guy you could hang out with at a coffee shop, not just sit in front at a formal church-type service. He seems relatable and that’s attractive.

Cristina Gabetti:

Exactly. He’s very relatable and what he writes is very relatable. I really think the prayer is beautiful. It’s simply a prayer for our earth and even if you’re not religious at all, the prayer is just simply sending out our wish, our deep burning desire to evolve and to see more peace and more equity, equilibrium and balance in the world.

In view of all this that I read, I guess my question to him today would be, as I do good at church on Sundays, would be could he really guide priests to incorporate the message of the encyclical because there are so many messages. Every single paragraph is a message that’s different from the previous one or the following one. Incorporating all these information and this invitation to feel interconnected into the sermons I think would promote action and would deliver hope because often sermons really take a negative turn and we’re led to feel like we’re sinners. That just does not hit home with me because I think we have enough negative feelings towards ourselves and towards the world that we need to cleanse. I think an uplifting mass is always good.

As I say, that simple, small volume acts on many, many levels. It’s interesting because when I listened to our wonderful conversation, I have kind of forgotten about that question so when I heard it I thought wow, isn’t that interesting. Meanwhile, it’s come out and there’s so much to share and it would be wonderful for your audience to have this little seed of wisdom which very spontaneously and by serendipity has come up.

Chris Williams:

I totally agree and honestly and I think I’m going to try reading it. That sounds crazy. I read a lot and I’m sitting here talking to you, Cristina, and if anybody is listening and you think you are a reader, then you need to just find out what Cristina Gabetti has read and is reading and you’ll realize you’re probably not as much of a reader as you thought you were. What you read and how much communication you do on issues is incredible and the fact that this one is something I think is attainable and that I could actually get my teeth into. I think it sounds like a great read and something honestly just being an informed human and a responsible human in a global community I think would be a great place to start and since it’s so attainable, you don’t have to get the spin of whatever media outlet you stick your head into mostly. Go read it for yourself. That’s a great encouragement to build up.

Cristina Gabetti:

I think so too. It would be wonderful for people to share how they feel. People from all walks of life – believers and non-believers and skepticals. I think we do have to come to terms that we’re facing a global shift and we just need to strive for the common good which has too many ideological innuendos that no longer pertain to our time. The common good is really just respecting one another and where we live.

The funny thing is my second question was that I’d love to ask an alien how we looked from the outside.

Chris Williams:

That was a great question by the way. I appreciate that.

Cristina Gabetti:

Do you know that he actually imagines – at one point he says if someone were to look at the human society from the outside, they would be surprised by behavior that often seems suicidal. So, I mean how cool is this man?

Chris Williams:

Yes. He’s a science fiction fan too.

Cristina Gabetti:

He is. Exactly. That made me smile. Okay. Both questions answered.

Chris Williams:

I love it. I love it. Okay, so before we go, tell us, this you explained this last time but for people like me who don’t know enough about the Catholic faith, an encyclical, what in the world is an encyclical?

Cristina Gabetti:

It’s the document that the pope uses to deliver what he believes in and what he would like his community to receive as a message, as an information, as an invitation. [Additional Note: An Encyclical is a Pope’s letter and can be written when the Pope feels it’s necessary to get a message out, therefore it’s driven by circumstance.]

Chris Williams:

Is that something he does on a regular basis or is it once or twice in his…

Cristina Gabetti:

I think that every pope writes an encyclical. I’m not sure that one single pope will write more than one encyclical, but you’ve caught me there.

Chris Williams:

No, I wasn’t trying to catch you. I’m impressed with the guy who can write that many pages in that depth. That’s an enormous amount of work. I was hoping you didn’t say once a year because I’m thinking how in the world does he do this?

Cristina Gabetti:

No, you know what, my sense is every pope writes his own encyclical and then that’s it, but I can check that online as we talk.

Chris Williams:

Talk about a library with a lot of depth and history, it would be fascinating to see all those.

Cristina Gabetti:

Exactly.

Chris Williams:

But maybe a little more reading that I could handle.

Cristina Gabetti:

You know what, I would love you to read it. Archive of encyclicals and other papal documents – there are actually papals and encyclicals online where they’re all indexed. I think every pope has his own document and this is a very coherent expression of what St. Francis represented. St. Francis had this wonderful connection, A Canticle of Creatures is a beautiful poem to read. Its’s about how creation is so beautifully expressed in full creativity with all the living creatures and how our love for nature and for all living creatures is really deep. It should be the essence of our life on earth. It’s a wonderful act of coherence, it’s very, very accessible and it’s very inspiring.

Chris Williams:

Well Cristina, thank you. I wish you could just join us every week and give a nice book review or media review, news review because it’s so educational and you’re awesome. Thank you.

Cristina Gabetti:

Thank you so much. You’re awesome and I’m happy to join you whenever you want.

Chris Williams:

One last question. So, you dropped your daughter off at the university, I have five kids, oldest is 14 about to turn to 15. I am dreading the day that I start saying goodbye to these kids and at the same time I think man, I can’t wait for catching more free time, but really that will be so sad. Was it hard?

Cristina Gabetti:

It was really, really hard because my first son is now a junior in college and so that was tough, but we still had two at home. There was a balance, two kids, two parents, right? But my daughter, when she graduated from being the one in the middle to being the eldest in the home, there was an emotional shift that was quite intense. Also, she’s the only girl and she’s always been independent. I’ve come to realize that I had probably neglected her at times because she was independent and got so many things doing on her own. I became aware of all this just during the summer as I saw a moment of departure come closer and closer. It was incredibly beautiful because we had a fantastic reconciliation and we got lots of stuff cleared and straightened out and I’m very happy though she’s had a very tough start. She’s enrolled as an architecture student of Pratt Institute and everyone was saying it was going to be blood, sweat and tears and I thought, you know, come on, they’re just giving you a hard time honey, you’ll be fine. Well, it turns out her first week of classes, she’s gone to sleep on an average between 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning because they give them challenges like build a structure with small pieces of wood that can hold a watermelon.
So, she sits in the studio challenging gravity and expressing creativity, but she’s really liking it. Its super, super tough, so that’s also been tough for me because you want to protect your babies. I’m very happy and I’m allowing myself to express all my emotions and that means that, you know, fortunately you walk on the street of New York and people don’t care if you’re balling your eyes out, so that’s what I did quite freely. It was definitely tough. We have a 13-year-old at home who is very quickly expanding into space and thinking he was the only one in the house so that would be another experience.

Chris Williams:

Well, it sounds like a really well-spent summer with your daughter and the way you describe her kind of sound like her mom, I don’t know why, so I bet she’ll do just fine out there. I’m sure of that.

Cristina Gabetti:

Thank you. I think there was a lot of, you know, we were desperately trying to get to each other and I think we wanted the same thing, we didn’t quite know how to go about it and so you know, experience is always not enough to really get everything straight, but as long as one is open and embracing conversation which is another point that the point makes that’s lovely – let’s keep this dialogue going, then I think everything can be worked out as a team which is nice.

Chris Williams:

Great point. Cristina Gabetti, you’re amazing. Thank you for your time again.

Cristina Gabetti:

Thank you very much Chris.

Chris Williams:

Enjoy the expo and say hi to Bono for me.

Cristina Gabetti:

I’m not going to see Bono. If he’s coming on my wedding anniversary which is not too convenient, I cannot be with Bono and celebrating with my husband.

Chris Williams:

I know. You got to pick one guy at a time, right?

Cristina Gabetti:

You got to pick one guy at a time. Exactly.

You’ve just listened to I Share Hope. If you’re ready to make a change, head to our website at isharehope.com and claim your free copy of the Top Ten Actions of Hope from World Leaders to use hope in your own life. Thanks for listening and we’ll talk to you next time.

Visit the Vatican website where the English version of the Encyclical is posted.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html

Visit the Vatican website where the Italian version of the Encyclical is posted.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html

Watch a replay of the Vatican’s presentation of the encyclical.

http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/06/18/watch-live-presentation-of-the-encyclical/