Threshold

"Give me a child at seven, and I will show you the man." The full text, originally serialized in five parts.

It was a year of deep and permanent impressions. I was seven, and my mother, my brother and I lived in Bergamo, Italy.

At the age of seven, as you may remember, your personality is ready to be lifted from the potter’s wheel and held up in the air like a newborn. You are nearing completion, yet you remain under the potter’s influence: the delicate spout s…