Aristotle teaches us that virtue is never found in extremes, but in the right balance. Arrogance belongs to those who overestimate themselves, while pusillanimity to those who underestimate and diminish themselves. Between these two destructive forces lies a luminous path the Greeks called megalopsychía: greatness of soul, the courage to recognize one’s own worth without exaggerating it, without diminishing it, and to live it with dignity.
After spending a day in Orgosolo, I came to the conclusion that the people there have something extra: they embody Aristotle’s idea of greatness of soul. Here hospitality is natural, but never servile. Strangers at the bar pay for me, and everyone I meet smiles. During a hike in the Supramonte, even the fire lookout called me over from his tower: he offered me coffee and told me the names of the mountains, the villages on the horizon, the plants along the trail.
Alongside this generosity, Orgolese pride is always palpable. Everyone speaks Sardinian, even children and young people (a rare fact in many parts of the island, where the language is slowly disappearing). The living use of Sardinian, the clothing that preserves traditional elements, the typical posture of the Barbagia, the murals that narrate resistance and struggle: everything speaks of identity, dignity, resilience.
On the evening of August 15, the joyful and welcoming faces change expression. Mounted on horses adorned for the feast, the people of Orgosolo perform a race that is at once spectacle, challenge, and collective ritual. Upright torsos, proud expressions, some even rising to stand on their horses at full gallop, among the shouts of the crowd and the wonder of the children.
In this balance between hospitality and dignity, Orgosolo shows the contemporary face of megalopsychía: a greatness of soul made real, lived through human relations and everyday gestures. It is the line of resistance in Sardinia, the one that saved us in the past and still tries to save us today, that does not bow its head to s’istranzu, the stranger, but which, sadly, is not enough on its own.
We should learn from the people of Orgosolo and from their history. If all of Sardinia followed their example, perhaps that servile streak that is leading our land to destruction would not be as marked as it is today.
