On what a blue zone is
Aleksander Piotrowski“So could you tell me what is your definition of a Blue Zone?”
Paola Demurtas“I would say that the Blue Zone, for me, from my point of view, is the sense of community that we have here. So every time that I heard about Blue Zone, it means family. That’s for me. But of course, Blue Zone is a very specific term, so to have definition of Blue Zone, you need to respect specific things. But for me, as a native, Blue Zone means family.”
Aleksander Piotrowski“So first and foremost, it’s community that brings the Blue Zone together.”
Paola Demurtas“Sense of community. This make everything different from other places to me, because you can replicate a lot of things, food or whatever, but the sense of community, the feeling, the vibe that I have here, because I was born and raised here, is different and I can find nothing comparable in other places in the world. I can find probably the same olive trees or whatever, but not the sense of community that I have here.”
On elders and the young together
Paola Demurtas“You realize how much people really care about you here, because we tend to live all together, like elders and teenagers, all usually in the same building. So we spend a lot of time all together, and the elders here have so much respect from us. So when we need to take some important decision that involve the family, we ask them. They are not just a part… We care about them, so they care about us. They teach us a lot of beautiful things… For instance, now I used to spend a lot of hours with my auntie, just talking to her about things related to the past, how I grew up, because I don’t remember when I was very young. And when I was a teenager, I didn’t do this kind of thing. It was, like, boring things to me. So yes, I really feel involved.”
On having wanted to leave
Paola Demurtas“When I was younger, like a teenager, I didn’t realize how important was the place where I lived, because I felt really isolated in this remote place. So I was dreaming about to leave this place. But when you grow up more and more and realize that you have a lot of beautiful things going on here, you feel part of this community.”
Aleksander Piotrowski“So what you want to say is that you started appreciating this place and the fact that you were brought up here after seeing some other places in the world…”
Paola Demurtas“Exactly.”
On the young coming back
Aleksander Piotrowski“Is it just your case or also many other young people, they tend to not understand what the Blue Zone is about and, like, would like to move away, or now there’s some more awareness and people want to preserve the tradition and culture?”
Paola Demurtas“Yeah, it’s exactly like this. Now many of us moved abroad, and now people is trying to come back to the roots and do something related to the past but in a modern way… keep the traditions alive, but with a touch of modern things… So yes, there is this kind of new movement. Unfortunately, it’s not enough. I think that we need more people here. But I can understand them because I was one of the first one to leave this place. It’s not easy to stay here. It’s not for everybody.”
Paola Demurtas“There is a lot of people, they want to come back. They care about our roots. They are proud because now, as you can see, there are many people all over the world talking about the blue zone, talking about our elders, talking about this environment. So we are proud of our area, of our people, and we want to make something to contribute to preserve our roots. Otherwise, everything will be gone in few years.”
On the elders’ mindset
Aleksander Piotrowski“What can you say about the local people’s mindsets right now here?”
Paola Demurtas“The mindset, especially the elders, are always positive because they grew up with basically nothing. Nothing. Their life was really tough, so they are able to appreciate even little things. So they are always happy, very wise… very welcoming with everybody.”
Paola Demurtas“They’re always happy, and they are very active. This is the trick, I can say. Even mentally, they are always involved in something related to the family, some decisions, something manually to do. So they are not just spending their day on sofa just watching the TV.”
On feeling safe
Paola Demurtas“So yes, I feel very safe here. Even if I go to another village and I don’t know personally that person, they know that I’m from another village. They’d ask about my family, so they, ‘Oh, okay, your parents were there, so you’re welcome.’ We are a big family all over this place… It happened many times, so I feel safe everywhere and involved in everything.”
On loneliness, not solitude — walking with Marek
Marek Piotrowski“Paola, what are you afraid most of in aging?”
Paola Demurtas“Well, to be honest, it’s the fact of being lonely, which is different of being alone, ’cause I love to be alone sometimes, but it’s different. When you are lonely, it means there is no one around that care about you, and this is really scary, especially if you grow up in a place like this.”
Paola Demurtas“If you think that in the past shepherds… alone up in the mountain for months, but they knew at that time that there were a lot of people in the villages that they care about them. So your mind is set up differently because you know that somewhere there is a lot of people at that time in the village that they care about you. So this is different, and the society today is completely different.”
On happiness before longevity
Marek Piotrowski“And how long do you want to live?”
Paola Demurtas“As long as I’m happy, it doesn’t matter. If I’m not happy, I can die even tomorrow. It doesn’t matter.”
Marek Piotrowski“…or if you’re happy, you can live for 1,000 years?”
Paola Demurtas“If I’m happy, even 1,000 years. If I’m not happy, as my auntie said, if I’m not happy, why do I have to live longer? This is the trick… They’re happy. This is the trick. I want to be like them, happy every day. A lot of people when they are old, they are tired of life. I don’t wanna get that point. I wanna be happy and smiling every day.”
Marek Piotrowski“Do you think that the secret to this particular blue zone is staying joyful?”
Paola Demurtas“Yeah, it is. Absolutely. You have to stay positive. Even if sometimes life is challenging, you have problems, but they have a very… the elders, positive attitude. And we are losing it because we are living a different lifestyle, modern lifestyle, so with a lot of problems.”
Marek Piotrowski“So what would be your message to the younger generation about their longevity?”
Paola Demurtas“Yes, you have to treat your body as a temple and not a trash bin. This is really important I have learned now in the past years… Think about of the people that surrounds you, because your environment shape your life. So if you have good friends, you’re gonna be happy.”
On her mission
Marek Piotrowski“Do you feel like this is your mission, or it’s the beginning of your mission?”
Paola Demurtas“I think that, yes, this is the beginning of the mission. One person told me in the past, ‘Oh, you have a mission.’ And I didn’t realize at that time that it’s really a mission… I decided to do this because, yes, it’s my mission, as someone said, because now I’m aware of the fact that we have something really special here. So I want to share with everybody.”
Paola Demurtas“So it’s a way for me to say, like, ‘Thank you. You did a really good job, like, raising me in this environment.’”
More passages from the full interview will be published here.
