This blue marble

– and yet it spins

Tag Archives: in the air


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The Bridge

bridgeThe bridge begins in Sweden, where it stretches a long sparkly spine over the blue strait. Cars flow back and forth like pearls on an abacus. Underneath the car deck, Swedish and Danish trains sweep back and forth, easily switching voltage and sides of traffic as they cross the border.

Suddenly, in the middle of the brightest blue, cars and trains and everything dive into the water and underneath the sea floor. Space must be made for ships and landing jetplanes. In the distance, back on the Swedish side in Malmö city, a tower building slowly revolves around its axis.

No, this is not the imagined future of the 1960s. It is also not our imagined future in 20 years’ time. This is the Öresund strait today. This is a region where languages and cultures are intertwined and mutually understood. This is the Nordics, practically borderless for 60 years and counting. Take that, European Union.

(Öresund Bridge, between Sweden and Denmark; April 2015)


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The law of Jante

saltholmenGliding over deserted Saltholmen island towards Copenhagen airport I think of how this flat country requires equal flatness of expectations. All peaks of success are evened out – and so are the lows. If you are good student you are expected to help those who are not equally successful. If you become rich you are expected to pay for it. Celebrating success is not encouraged, and neither is standing out as a total failure.

Once upon a time in a Norwegian book there was a Danish little village called Jante. The people of Jante abide by a number of laws which all boil down to one thing: you are not better or worse than anybody else. Do not expect it – nobody else does, either. Just fit in and you will be fine.

In the midst of this competitive world, in the heart of every Dane there lives a little villager from Jante. And not a month passes that I do not wonder whether the Norwegian author mistook the location of the village: the law of Jante ensnares the Finnish spirit, too.

As we float past the Öresund bridge rising from the bottom of the sea I wonder if it would be possible to keep the cake and eat it, too? What if we decided to keep the supportive lifting towards the mean for those who need help, and allow celebrating success and individuality? Why should the mean be the limit when it is possible to reach the stars?

(Copenhagen, Denmark; March 2015)

 


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Last leg of the year

zurichskyIt was one of those days when a meeting requires not a single step out into the city. Was I really in Zurich, or was I in limbo, like the man who lived in an airport terminal for years? At least the last leg of the year featured a watercolor sky. And a pair of mysteriously exchanged gloves. The ones I now have are prettier than the ones that went home with another lady. Unfortunately she also took my precious fleece liners.

My gloves were from Cambridge and my liners from the US. Even as a glove, life tosses one around like a leaf in the wind. Fortunately there will be no more tossing for me as I am firmly grounded until January. I hope you all are enjoying a quiet and peaceful last week of the year.

(Zurich, Switzerland; December 2014)