“I was a normal teenager until 9/11. After that I had to become an expert in terrorism, the Middle East, and ‘being oppressed'”, said Sara Salmani.
In the turbulences of our world, we often miss noticing how the hearts and minds of children are affected by the crises created by adults. Questions are asked, perhaps; stereotypes formed, for sure. And there is no pill for growing up overnight.
(TEDx Turku, Turku, Finland; November 2017)
Lovely ones, on to quite a different topic for once: color. It is an endless source of inspiration for me, even if my home has exactly three colors: some cocoa brown, mostly shades of gray, and a touch of turquoise. And now, finally, after decades of thinking about it, I had my own colors analyzed. I always thought of myself as a True Summer, but could not quite make mint green or light blue gray work. Now I know why. My coloring is one of those tricky neutrals, on a slider from the coolest colors slightly towards warmer, but still more cool than warm.
Soft summer is probably the most boring, flat, mousy color scheme out of them all. There is no white, only a light neutral like a sheet caught in the smoke of a campfire. There are no pastels, or colors with white added to them; instead all the light colors are diluted with a shade of gray.
But soft summer is also elegant, understated, polished. Like a bluebell on a slightly hazy dewy meadow. My gray cat’s paw, with lavender pads. Dusty old dried roses. There is depth to soft summer: aubergine, Douglas fir needle green, a deep slightly muted burgundy. There is no real contrast: the differing but same-tone colors bring the picture to life. Like if you reduced a photograph of a hazy summer night meadow to black-and-white: you cannot tell what is what, and where the flowers are. But add color and all makes sense.
Now I need to get my head into a slightly more neutral, dusky, calm space. With a sense of revelation I have recycled a couple of garments I had always loved but which never seemed quite right. Mostly because they were either too cool or too light. And I cannot wait for spring to go hunting for seafoam, sage, and pistachio greens.
(Helsinki, Finland; November 2017)
“MARRY ME SHEENA” exclaims a huge billboard on the side of the road between Vilnius and Kaunas. No, we are not somewhere in the South States of the USA. We are in Lithuania. Surely Sheena and her beau cannot have been Baltic? Did she see the sign? Did she respond Yes?
A quick search on the internet reveals that neither one is a Southerner. Sheena, it turns out, is a winner of Malaysia’s Next Top Model. Her beau is Lithuanian – and an artist who painted some famous murals in Penang, Malaysia. But most importantly, she said Yes.
Perhaps the happy couple will get married in Lithuania, where late September flower glory competes with tropical Southeast Asia?
(Lithuania; September 2017)
The backpack is emptied, the clothes are laundered, the laptop is showing Gilmore Girls, and the cats are right where they usually are: somewhere on top of me. All is well in the world.
(Helsinki, Finland; August 2017)
The Brits are invading. With Red Arrows. Shooting…um…. arrows.
(Red Arrows air show in Helsinki, Finland; June 2017)
My weekly ride to Stockholm City airport. By now I am an expert in cramming in and out of small spaces.
(Stockholm Bromma airport, Sweden; May 2017)
“After some thought I realized that the WC is the most public space in the home, even more so than the kitchen. But toilet supplies are the least inspiring things of any home. The guests may rarely see them, but if they are displayed in an untidy fashion, your reputation is ruined. This is why esthetics is essential especially when it comes to storing toilet supplies”.
Marie Kondo never fails to make me laugh – just before she slaps me with a new insight barely a second later.
(Helsinki, Finland; May 2017. Excerpt freely translated from the Finnish version of Spark Joy by Marie Kondo)
spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things,while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there)andwithout breaking anything.
(e. e. cummings)
(Helsinki, Finland; April 2017)
Dinner and networking at the Helsinki City Council. One woman wore red, I wore blue, and the rest wore dark. Mostly men in suits. This is what it is like to be a “woman in business”.
I work mainly with men in suits older or far older than I. Yet most of the time I am the one in a power position, because of my job. It was odd at first, especially to challenge team leads in beards and gray hair when I was barely 30 years old. Today I barely think of it. And if I do, it is to use it to my advantage: a younger woman often obtains information and influence easier, because she is perceived to not be a threat. And I seldom pay for my drinks.
But I still feel uncomfortable. In particular, in the airline lounge on a Monday morning, when I am one of the handful of women in there, and usually the only one in jeans. I gave my sister a give-away elite tier card. After her first visit to the lounge alone, on a workday morning, she looked at me with huge eyes and proclaimed she had felt like she was being exhibited. This is also what it is like to be a “woman in business”. Even here in relatively gender-equal Finland.
It is not always about the pay. It mostly is about the mundane, minor things. Because these are the subconscious, left-unseen signals that give away the conditioning of our minds.
I do not aspire to become a man – quite the contrary. I was very happy I was not wearing a dark suit at that dinner party. I only hope I will never feel that I am expected to become a man in order to get along better.
(Helsinki, Finland; March 2017)
It has been a long day. For me and for Cassandra. No more words today.
(Helsinki, Finland; January 2016)
This blue marble 