7. An OVAX story without numbers: my father in WW2

10/11/2024

The story below shows both free-will choices driven by Values, and destiny, working together in a lifetime . It shows how war times can affect an ordinary life.

It is an example of a format that I call "Value-Life-Story" because it shows the evolution and changes of Values over time. This example may guide you in writing your own Value-Life-Story over your "Life Seasons". It can also serve as an example for you to write the Value-Life-Story of your loved ones, or of people that you are interested in, socially or professionally. In each case, you can apply the OVAX methodology to their stories, in a text form, without numbers.

In the following pages, I only show two life seasons of my father's life story, while the full story is in my book.

First job and wedding (1936-1938)

His first employment was with Fiat in a small town in the South of Italy, Cosenza. He was able to rent a central apartment and budget for his married life. He got married to a land-owner country girl from Campania in central Italy, whom he met through his brother Fortunato.

Character: Stubborn, self-confident, hardworking, devoted to family.

Talents/ assets: Good public-relations talent as an employee in the Fiat sales department; a reasonable salary and small income from land ownership.

Values

.  Relationships: to be a good husband; to keep good contacts with his in-laws and siblings.

.  Work life: to build-up a good reputation with the Fiat head-quarters in Turin.

.  Lifestyle: to provide all possible comforts for the home, and follow his passion for cars.

Actions: Devoting most time to work and care for family, investing in a good car.

Experience: Fulfilment and happiness coming from family and work, and from travel in a good car to visit relatives and land properties in central and southern Italy.

Children and War (1938-1945)

Soon after his wedding and his first child, at the start of his good job, Italy went into World War 2 (1940), with the crazy dream of re-establishing a Roman empire model for "our sea", the Mediterranean. This dream was not shared by many Italians, not by Nini. He moved his family (wife and two children) to the house of his mother-in-law in the countryside of Campania. The soldiers he was in charge of, defending Campania, hated war, and would say to him in their dialect "we cannot shoot these people (the enemy), they may be fathers of children, like we are!". Nini would try to enforce discipline by replying: "When you catch sight of the enemy and you run away, do not leave your rifles on the ground, they are expensive, carry them with you".

Character: Stubborn, self-confident, always calm, understanding the different views of people, devoted to his family, moved by the suffering he observed (e.g. resulting from bombs), generous with his subordinates, brave.

Talents/ assets: Talent in driving all kinds of vehicles (motorbikes, horse carts, cars); being trusted by his subordinates; managing family survival in the most difficult conditions.

Values

.  Relationships: to find ways and means to protect his family, mother-in-law, and friends, keep them away from bombs, find food and beds for them when moving from one shelter to another; to be friendly with the enemy soldiers, because they are people like us, Germans and Americans alike (both of them took possession, at different war stages, of the family house of the mother-in-law in Campania).

.  Work life: to follow the military rules for the war, in a charitable way.

.  Lifestyle: to get food, sleep, and avoid bombs, as a question of pure survival.

Actions: Mitigating military duties as leader of a group of soldiers; moving the family from one place to another (from south of Italy to countryside locations in central Italy) to escape bombs and keep safe from different stages of military occupations.

Experience: It pays to be friendly with everybody, subordinates, compatriots, and even war enemies.

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