Guido Guide

Guido is one of the two special friends of Momo. He is a handsome and outgoing youth. His surname is Guide because his job is a local town guide. What is interesting about his tour is that he teaches the people a made-up fantasy as the history of the town. Some of his neighbors do not think it is the right thing to do and tell him about their opinion, but he eloquently talks back.

'I'm only doing what poets do,' Guido would argue. 'Anyway, my customers get their money's worth, don't they? I give them exactly what they want. Maybe you won't find my stories in any guidebook, but what's the difference? Who knows if the stuff in the guidebook isn't made up too, only no one remembers any more. Besides, what do you mean by true and untrue? Who can be sure what happened here a thousand years ago or two thousand years ago? Can you?'

I like Guido because he ingeniously entertains the tourists and he is conscious of what he is doing. To him, whether it is written in the guidebook is not as important as whether his customers are enjoying what he tells them. I do not support the idea of distorting history, but I think it is crucial to keep our eyes open. It means that we should be humble about the basis of our beliefs because nothing can be proven clearly in this world. It is when we tolerate and even embrace the ambiguity of our lives that we can live creatively like Guido.