Things are moving along, slowly and always with the usual delays. The sale of my house has been postponed to January 31, 2026, “maybe,” I feel like saying… how much it pisses me off that I’ll have to go to the town hall to tell them I’ll only need to pay the garbage tax for one month. And the consortium too! It seems it was meant to be this way; the important thing is to resolve it, even if another lawn mowing session seems to be looming.
Anyway, my last sabotages to new song composition are also coming to an end; I started with the anime I’ll focus my songs on, watching a total of about 650 episodes. Then I started thinking that the costs for singers and the drummer could become high, but even that didn’t work, so my internal saboteur pulled out the wild card: finishing the NHL season on the Xbox One with the Capitals—regular season, Stanley Cup, trades (the part I love the most; I love shopping, it’s a powerful antidepressant), and setting up the team for the next year. This is something I love doing because in this specific case, I manage both the first team and the satellite team, the Hershey Bears, and I like developing the teams in a certain way. The Capitals can have a maximum of 5 external players (I’d like to reduce it to 3); the others must have been drafted picks, so they must be “pure” Capitals. While in the Bears, they should usually all be “pure,” sometimes I get the urge to let players who made recent NHL history play their last season, like Toews, Malkin, Pelech, Crosby, Ekblad, to name people I remember. What I enjoy most is seeing the new recruits grow and earn their spot on the first team, just like in Football Manager. Later in my career saves, my teams have a “youth squad” that is almost stronger than the first team because at the end of every season, I go through all the teams in all the leagues, see who’s good and out of contract, and either sign them or scout them, and based on the feedback, I buy them or not… even though it’s just fiction, it gives me satisfaction and brightens my day, and that’s not insignificant.
One afternoon, around six in the evening, it was spring. I have two balconies, one facing east and one west. I lean out the west one, and looking toward the park, I see children playing with each other, parents talking lightheartedly, the sun still high. On that occasion, there was even the cotton candy cart and some other treats; in short, I had an incredible urge to go out! I go to grab my windbreaker in the bedroom facing east, and my gaze falls on a man in his eighties who was struggling toward home with two shopping bags, one in each hand, and evident shortness of breath. I stopped to watch him, then I put the jacket down and went back to playing on the One. That image took away all my hope; it depressed me in an alarming way, so much so that I had to take refuge in one of the few things that restores my good mood.
Returning to my sabotages, I’m now at February 11, 2033. I hope to finish by Sunday, then the search for new catchy songs will begin. I wanted to tell you about the song “The Soul Edge.” However, if you ask ChatGPT or Gemini, they will surely be able to give you more exhaustive information than me; I can only tell you about my experience. The first game that came into my house was “Soul Blade,” a fighting game with easier mechanics than Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter. You could also use bladed weapons. I remember Siegfried, who was a knight, Taki was a ninja, and then there was Voldo, who had blades instead of hands, if I’m not mistaken, and I remember I managed to finish that game with everyone. The endings were all different; I liked them then, and I like them even more now because if you view the sword (Soul Edge) as a metaphor for the power a person wants to achieve to conquer their goals, you appreciate the whole thing better. There are those who get big-headed and become megalomaniacs, those who realize this risk and throw it away because they feel that power is not what makes them a person worthy of esteem, and there are those who use the power but then manage to oppose it, coming back to their senses. The “Soul Edge” is a weapon that has the power to corrupt the wielder’s soul, regardless of their mental state or discipline. That’s why the key is realizing that once you’ve managed to obtain it, you no longer need it, because on the path that led you to achieve it, you acquired techniques, experience, and strategies that made you stronger. It’s a bit like the “reach the peak and sell everything” strategy, something that some soccer clubs also do and that is also done with some players. If something has reached its peak, you sell it, and that’s where you profit and lose nothing because you have the means to bring something back to the peak (even in other fields). There’s no need to cling to a “Soul Edge” for life because it can go well for you, but it can also go badly, as you can’t always stay at the peak—like pocket aces (AA) in poker are not always a winning hand, especially if on the turn you have a 5, 6, 7, 8 offsuit and 4 other players in the game besides you.
For more details, there is the book by Manrico Erriu – Nel dubbio uccidi (When in Doubt, Kill). I don’t know if there’s an English version, but it’s a book in which he recounts his life’s journey and his continuous re-invention every time, which led him to become CEO of Watanabe & Kitamura Investments, a wealth management holding company. I’m still trying to figure out a way to apply it to music—nothing yet!
Alright, I remind you that the “The Soul Edge” video will be released on YouTube on Friday, December 5, 2025, at 2:30 PM Italian time. Good things!