Having lived in Montreal for seven years, perhaps I should know a bit more than I actually do, but I haven’t been in Canada since the start of “corona” and so I don’t really know the details of the current situation.
What I do know is that Canada had very strict regulations, a group of truckers was not happy with the constant controls at the border and the vaccine mandates, so they decided to protest. The whole thing escalated into a huge popular protest, they’ve been for three weeks protesting in Ottawa, and now Trudeau declared martial law and is arresting on unknown charges the leaders of a completely peaceful protest, and freezing the bank accounts of anyone who donated to them.
It would have been much easier to just drop the restrictions — most countries are doing it anyway, winter is ending and there was no point to most of those controls anyway — but I suppose the government didn’t want to accept defeat.
It is strange to discover that most Western governments are so much against their own populations. Most people are not happy with the constant controls and the ever-changing rules, so they protest. Shouldn’t governments respond to the wishes of their own population? But increasingly it doesn’t happen this way, and politicians just respond to bankers or big companies or whoever is paying them, and are completely blind to their voters.
There are rumours that Trudeau’s is actually Fidel Castro’s son; that is of course irrelevant to the situation and cannot be proven one way or another, but given what we know about Margaret Trudeau and having seen the pictures of her with Castro, that is a distinct possibility. However, he doesn’t have Castro’s charisma and it is unlikely that his political career will go on for much longer after this fiasco.
It is sad to watch what was a supposedly democratic country choosing the path of violence instead of dialogue or common sense, but I think the consequences of this very bad choice by the Canadian government will be felt for long afterwards.
In a story by August Strindberg, a student visits an island and is enchanted by it. The landscape is beautiful, his experiences are joyful and everyone is friendly. He returns overjoyed: “Perhaps you ask whether the island really was so wonderful. I answer: I found it so, but perhaps the beauty was in my way of looking at it.” (August Strindberg, “A Blue Book”)
As the island of Björkö retreats into the distance and becomes a memory, and a more mundane, boring, daily reality come to the foreground once again, I am reminded of that fragment.
Was Sweden just a dream? I came back now to a grey town, with rainy, windy weather and where people still use masks and most places are still restricted for vaccinated and/or tested until at least mid-March (Sweden already removed all their restrictions on February 9), it feels a bit as if I had been in a place out of normal reality and have now just woken up.
Perhaps it’s true, perhaps my recent experience in Sweden was more about my way of looking at it than about the realities there. Sometimes changing places can make us see everything in a new light, and being in unfamiliar territory makes us more receptive to new feelings and ideas.
Besides, I was also a little bit more disconnected from the online world, and taking more walks in the forest made me feel more connected to the real wold than to the virtual landscape of constant news and “likes” that we inhabit now.
Recently there was an ad for the so-called “Metaverse” which was quite sad. A discarded mechatronic puppy only finds solace from his depressive life as a retired toy when someone puts a VR headset on him and he can virtually reunite with old friends.
The ad seems to say: your life sucks, reality sucks, come to the “metaverse”. Perhaps that’s the plan, with all that hysteria and social distancing and restrictions and even prohibiting protests and freezing bank accounts of people who donate to a cause the government doesn’t like and the increasing ugliness of modern architecture and modern art and the modern world in general: to make everything look so difficult, dangerous, sad or ugly that we will just retreat more and more into some kind of virtual universe and abandon reality and normal social interaction altogether.
But this does not need to be our future. We can change our future and ourselves. And when we change inside, we also affect the world outside.
In Strindberg’s story, the student returns to the island a year later. This time, however, the nature feels dangerous or desolate, the people scary or unfriendly, and his experiences sad or disappointing. Yet it was the same island! What happened?
The island was the same, but the man was different. Older, embittered by life, following bad advice from bad companions, he had lost connection with everything that was good and beautiful, and “whenever a man breaks the connection with the higher sphere, which is Love and Wisdom, a hell ensues.”
His teacher, who was listening to the story, brings us the conclusion: “Let us return for a moment to your green island. There you discovered that the world is a reflection of your interior state, and of the interior state of others. It is therefore probable that each carries his own heaven and hell within him.”
So this is it. Now I am on the train from Stockholm to Copenhagen, and from there to Germany, finally leaving Sweden.
It was hard to leave, and not just because I loved the country. I actually missed my train, so I had a lot of trouble to extend my stay in Stockholm for one more day to catch the next train which left only the next morning. But staying longer was not much of an advantage, as the last day I spent mostly just going around town trying to solve all kinds of issues related to the trip, such as finding another place to stay and buying a new bag and having the Covid test required for entry into Germany, which was not that easy to find in Stockholm and cost the astounding amount of 50 euros! Absurd! Almost the same I paid for spending the night in a nice studio apartment in Stockholm! On top of that, I also had to buy a new train ticket as they did not accept the old one anymore. I think that in the last two days in Stockholm, I spent twice the money than I spent during the whole month at Björkö!
Not all was bad, however. I was actually lucky enough to find a place in Gamla Stan, or the Old Town, which is the most beautiful part of Stockholm, in the island of Stadsholmen, with preserved old buildings and crooked cobblestone streets. The rest of the city is not as beautiful. Stockholm, like Uppsala, destroyed a lot of its old buildings in a renovation process in the 1960s, changing almost everything to modern, ugly brutalist buildings. Can you imagine! The Swedes were not bombed to almost total destruction like Germany, they did not have Communism and its rebuilding in “socialist” style like Russia or Poland, and yet they simply chose to destroy most of their old buildings instead of renovating them. A real shame, as the Old Town is really beautiful, and perhaps all Stockholm could look like that today.
I also visited the Viking Exhibition at the History Museum, which was very interesting. They had a lot of artifacts, from glass cups to swords to bracelets and even skeletons and parts of a ship. Most of the artifacts were found in burial sites, as people were buried with their belongings. There is a lot of jewelry and decorations, some with Pagan motifs, some with early Christian motifs. Many people don’t know, but the Viking age and the Christianization of the country were almost simultaneous, so for quite some time Pagan and Christian beliefs lived side by side, and not always necessarily competing, as even adherents of the new religion would still keep a few of the old practices. The main practical differences were related to the disposal of the bodies — as Pagans preferred to cremate their corpses, and Christians to bury them. Also, the Pagans performed animal sacrifices (mostly dogs, cats, and chickens), which were burned together with the deceased, which was not allowed by the new religion. The number and type of animals sacrificed depended on the status of the person; there is a record of one family being cremated together with 25 different animals.
Christianization was slow, and at first there were no churches, which were established only in the 11th century. People just practiced at home. But one interesting display at the exhibition is a VR reconstruction of an 11th century viking church.
Another myth is that the vikings were all warriors. While warriors were highly valued and remained at the top of the social system, most people had other occupations: farmers, artisans, shopkeepers, welders. The society was divided in three castes: noblemen, free men, and thralls (or slaves). Thralls were either prisoners captured in war, people who incurred in debt, or were simply born into that class, as the system was hereditary. However, thralls could be given freedom by their masters, or eventually buy their own freedom. If you killed a thrall, you had to pay its master about 200 grams of silver, as it was considered property (if you killed a freeman, you had to pay 2 kg of silver to their relatives). Eventually, more and more thralls obtained their freedom, either by purchasing it or on the initiative of their masters, the church or the secular authority. The system was completely abolished in the 14th century.
In conclusion: Stockholm was nice, but in the end, all big cities resemble a bit each other, and if my monthly stay had been in town, I think I wouldn’t have loved it as much as I loved Björkö. As I grow old, I tend to appreciate more and more the silence and natural peace of the countryside or small villages, and less and less the hustle and bustle of big cities.
This is the end, beautiful friend. What to make of this experience? I suppose it will still take some time to assimilate the meaning of it all, but I loved mostly being in an isolated place, in the middle of nature and taking long walks in the forest. I loved having the time and concentration to focus on a couple of artistic projects. I loved being able to explore and discover more about Sweden and Swedish people, and what makes them the way they are.
Did I discover the secrets of the Scandinavian soul? Not really. But I learned to appreciate the polite, gentle people of Sweden and their well-organized society. Perhaps I will be back one day — ideally in summer, as in some ways it must be a completely different experience.
There will always be time to go back to Sweden. At least, that’s the hope.
My thanks (tack!) and appreciation to all the people of Sweden I met on the way, and to the few people who read these daily posts and followed part of this journey with me.
Today I took my last walk around Björkö. I visited the hairy cows and the horses for one last time. Then I went towards the sea in Marum, crossed the little bridge and returned through the forest to Kulla. I did not see any lynx, moose or fox, but I found a few large bones in the forest. I don’t know which animal it was, but it seems to be pretty large. It could be a moose. It could even be a human being, for all I know. But I don’t know much about bones. I took the smaller one with me, the other ones I left at BKN for an artist that does sculpture with bones.
All I can say is, I will miss that little island.
Now I am on the bus towards Stockholm — actually, I started writing on the bus but now I am already in Stockholm, but I will write about it tomorrow — and I am thinking about the three questions of my documentary. Some people asked me, “But what are your answers? How do you view Swedish people?”
Well, it’s hard to say. I don’t think I lived enough time around them to know them all that much. My impression is that they are very nice and polite, but, as one woman I interviewed said, “there’s a lot under the surface.” Perhaps, like characters in a Bergman movie or a play by Strindberg, they appear nice and friendly at a distance but, deep down, they are tormented individuals haunted by who knows which demon or psychological turmoil. How can you know? They don’t talk about such things. At least, not to strangers like me. As another interviewee put it, they are “open, but also a bit closed”, and I like them this way.
Good things about Sweden? So many I could not list all here, but I like the general idea that the rules in society are not so much imposed by force, as by a general trust that people will do the right thing. Like the idea of the “Allemansrätten”, that law that allows you to walk on any open land, even if it’s private property. I don’t think any other country has that. I remember when I visited lake Ontario in Canada and was shocked to find out that a large part of its margins were occupied by private houses and private beaches, and you couldn’t really walk around. The Swedish system let people walk around anywhere, but they trust that you will not throw garbage or break stuff or steal things. The same applies to Covid rules and so many other things: you do the correct things more because of social pressure than because of harsh impositions. Freedom and independence are very important here, and that’s a good thing.
The bad thing may be the other side of that, that perhaps you need to conform to the unspoken social rules and cannot try to be too different from everyone else. Do not think of painting your summer house in bright tones of pink or violet… Also, the other side of individuality is isolation and possibly loneliness. Perhaps it is difficult for someone coming from another country to integrate, to make friends, to “become Swedish” in any way; and even if you’re actually Swedish, if you live in the city you may not have much contact with your own neighbours and could end up dying alone and be found out only two years later, as that unfortunate character in the documentary “The Swedish Theory of Love”.
My favourite Swedish word? Well, I like “slut” (pronounced sloot), which means “end”, and I also like “Smultronstället”, which means “wild strawberries” — but I’m warming up to “hoppas”, which means hope.
Yesterday I did a small presentation of my work at BKN, showing again the video and a recording of the play to the local artists, which the organizer, Anna Viola, hadn’t seen. Now there is a new artist from Taiwan that is taking my studio space. She’s probably sitting right now on my desk, looking out of my window and watching the birds. Oh well. What can we do? It is time to go.
To prepare for the night event, I baked homemade pizza and also my now traditional apple cake, and we had a couple of bottles of 3,5% alcoholic beer, which is the only one they sell at the supermarket. For anything else, you have to go all the way to Norrtalje, 50 km away. I got a local beer brewed in Älmsta, which wasn’t bad. Skål!
Skål is how they say “cheers” in Swedish. It also means “bowl”, and may refer to a time when ancient people shared the same bowl and passed it around to drink. It also sounds like the English word “skull”, and some say it could refer to a custom of the vikings to drink their beer in the skulls of their dead enemies, but this is probably just another myth. They did not use human skulls as mugs, but horns. The truth is that a lot of what we know about the vikings has been written after they were gone, and so a lot of romanticized myths are mixed in with reality. Whichever is the case, they probably drank something stronger than 3.5% alcoholic beer…
It was a great experience being here at Björkö, and particularly at the BKN space for artists, a place I recommend to anyone. Everybody has been very gracious, and it was good to be able to say goodbye to the organizers and to meet the new artists coming.
In the end, since I am going to remain still three more days in Sweden, I decided to continue writing about the country. And why not? There is always something to say.
I was thinking about that word, “lagom”. Three people mentioned it in my documentary “Three questions about Sweden“. It means “not too little and not too much, but just the right amount.” It comes from an archaic form of the word “law” and it could be translated as “according to the law” or “according to custom”.
There is a mythical story that its usage came from vikings passing around a horn filled with alcohol to the brim, and each viking was allowed to drink just enough to leave some booze to the others: “not too much and not too little”. But this seems to be mostly just a nice myth, although who knows. The vikings didn’t write much. It seems they preferred to raid, rape and kill. The earliest record of the word appears only in the 17th century.
In what refers to social relations, Swedish people are “lagom”. They are very nice and friendly on the surface, but also they seem not to want to get involved too much, at any rate, not too soon. Do not expect to become bosom buddies very quickly. Things take time. And if you live in the city, it might be harder than in the country.
It is interesting that Swedes tend to be more towards the introvert spectrum, but still are very kind and gentle, which is, to me, a nice combination. Finns appear to be even more recluse. There is a joke that goes: “How do you know if a Finn is interested in you?” The answer: “He or she keeps staring at your shoes instead of at his/her own.” Another joke explains that the 2 meter “social distancing” was never tried in Finland because it would actually have decreased the distance between people… (Finland, perhaps the next travel destination?)
Swedes may also be “lagom” in their view of society. While the government does offer several facilities and social services, they do not seem to try to push people too far. They are collectivist to a point, but in general they prefer to allow for individual independence. Now, I cannot know this for sure, as I have not been living here long enough, but Sweden’s approach to the Covid restrictions, so different from most other European countries, appears to follow that rule.
In other things, however, the Swedish government appears to be a bit more forceful. Sweden is famous, for instance, for really pushing for “gender equality” in all areas of society, sometimes going overboard. A few years ago, there was even a push for “gender equality” in snow removal, as government officials had discovered that more women than men were slipping on the ice and falling, so they decided to prioritize removing snow and ice from the city sidewalks, supposedly more used by women, over from the main roads, supposedly more used by men. I am not sure if the plan worked, and now more men slip and fall on the ice than women; but I did slip and fall on the ice earlier today, making my part for a more gender-equal world.
I also saw a few women working in traditionally more male occupations, such as fixing the roads or operating snow pushers, so I don’t know if this is also a result of some government plan to equalize opportunities in all types of work, or just the result of free choice.
Finally, today the Library bus came here to Björkö! In Sweden, if you don’t come to library, the library comes to you. A bus does the round once a month all over the island, stopping in different places, and you can even request a specific book and they will bring it to you. One of the stops is right here in front of this former school, and another one is at the nearby Municipal House where I did my presentation. I went there today, and they also had a “fika” with coffee and cake. So that’s Sweden for you.
While I am still staying in Sweden a few more days, and I will still spend a day in Stockholm before finally leaving, I don’t know if I should continue with the daily posts. I feel that after the climax of the presentation, there is not much more that needs to be added, unless something really unexpected happens, like meeting a lynx, or a moose, or Agnetha or some other member of ABBA walking around.
I should continue with the blog in one way or another, the question will be more — what to write? I like to write about travels, but one can’t always be traveling, so that may not be a possibility.
I could write about politics, but that would be boring. Incidentally, I started this blog to write a few things against “corona restrictions”, but then, here in Sweden, they were basically a non-issue. I didn’t need to take one of those annoying nose “tests”, show my vaccine papers, or use a mask for the whole month, and, to be honest, I ended up completely forgetting about it. I wasn’t even reading the news. Of course, as soon as I cross the border into Germany, since as far as I know they have not yet lifted their restrictions, I will probably be back in that hell of masks, tests, passes and so on. It is so absurd, as if any this made any sense or difference. Life in Sweden was normal, why can’t it be in Germany, or France or Italy? But politicians love big problems that they can provide the “solution” for, in the form of new laws and controls. Now, even if corona finally ends, they will probably try the same with global warming, or with this war in Ukraine that they are trying to make happen…
So, politics, probably not.
I could write about art, film and literature, which would be nice, but let’s face it: only very few people are interested in that.
Then I thought, since I have been baking here a bit, trying new cake recipes and breads and so on — today I tried a new bread recipe — I could write a blog about food. That seems to be very popular. Everybody likes food and recipes. But… To be honest, I am not that great at cooking and baking. There are only a few things that I can cook really well, and while I find the subject interesting, it’s not something I have much to say about, so I think I prefer to leave it to others.
So, we shall see. For the moment, as I said, I am still in Sweden for a few days, so I may still write about it until the moment I cross the border. But since today nothing much happened, except for a short walk (but no lynx, no moose, no Agnetha) and some work around the house, and editing movies, I will just leave you with a few more pictures from yesterday evening and today’s sunset. Enjoy.
The day started with slippery ice all over the entrance, so you had to be careful walking out of the door. It was sunny, but the ice from the previous rain and snow had frozen. One false step and you could fall down on the hard, cold ice, and break a leg. But then again, isn’t “break a leg” an expression used to wish success for those who work in the theatre world?
Today was the day for my final presentation here, which included the exhibition of a video documentary (“Three questions about Sweden”) and the reading of a sort of play.
I woke up feeling a bit anxious, after nightmarish dreams, as nothing was properly prepared. I had finished editing the video just the night before, and as for the reading of the play, the text was finished just two days ago, we didn’t have time for rehearsals, and everything had to be improvised on the spot. Plus there were quite a few technical aspects related to the exhibition and the recording of the play, and we had to make sure that all cables and stuff worked.
The video presentation, I think, went quite well. I don’t know what Swedish people will think of it, but, as a non-Swedish, I found all responses interesting; some were funny, a few were even touching.
Now, the film has a few little technical problems, the main one being that the camera (a now old Canon DSLR) has recently developed a problem with its focus sensor, and so autofocus is not working properly. Manual focus should be working a bit better, even if also not perfectly. However, my own inner focus sensor, that is my eyes, due to my age are also not working properly, and the little screen of the camera does not help. So sometimes I was sure things were on focus but they weren’t… But it happens only now and then in the video, and I think it does not distract too much from the content.
The video documentary was followed by a sort of multimedia play… It was called “Landstigning” (or “Ashore” in English), inspired by the work of August Strindberg and Henrik Ibsen, and it is really still very much a work-in-progress… It is the initial scene or act of whatever I managed to write up here, and while it worked for the purposes of this presentation, it will still need a lot of work to turn into something finished.
The presentation of the play was a little more chaotic than the video, as we had done only a single reading of it, a day before (by video call, as Robert was in Stockholm) and there were no rehearsals on the stage. As we found out, there were many cues — actors’ entrances, sound effects, songs — that had not been properly timed.
But I have to say that Robert, who is a professional actor and theatre director, did a wonderful job. We were all just reading the lines, as there was no time for a real interpretation, but it was great job by the only real actor on stage. Robert played Ibsen; I, unfortunately, had to play Strindberg, as there was no one else to do it. A third character that just appears singing was played by fellow artist and singer Åsa, also by improvisation, as she had only been informed the day before…
The whole experience has only increased my respect for actors. It can be really hard to step on a stage and convince people that you are somebody else. I cannot really do it, but a good actor can transform written lines that maybe sound clunky or nothing special on paper, and give them the breath of life, and really make people believe in whatever crazy thing is happening. Actors make it seem easy, but it isn’t.
And of course, that’s not mentioning all the work that goes into it with the preparation, rehearsals, set design, etc. Now, I’ve been working with film for a while, and it can be hard too, but doing something live, and for the stage, is and feels completely different. If I have to do it another time, I will not try to rush it and take several months just for the preparation, but of course, we had just a few weeks up here at Björkö.
A surprise guest at the presentation was my friend Ninnie, another former exchange student at the Georgia Rotary Student Program (besides Karin) whom I had not seen in 28 years. She lives in Stockholm with a husband and three kids and came all the way up for the show. So that was very nice of them and also increased my respect for the people of Sweden, which was already high.
As I was back in the house, or rather in front of it, the little yellow bird appeared again, in a tree just next to me, singing. I suppose it’s the same bird who used to come to my window, or at least, I like to imagine it is. I still don’t know what he wants, but he seemed happy.
In January 2022, I stayed in Sweden for a month, and I asked Swedish people three questions. These are the results.
(Documentary, 18 min, Sweden.)
For English, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles, please check this version here on Youtube.
Thanks for the support of BKN Björkö Konstnod, and thanks to all the nice Swedish people interviewed.
Note: The camera (a now old Canon DSLR) had a problem with the focus sensor, and so autofocus was not working properly. Manual focus should be working a bit better, however, my own focus sensor, that is my eyes, due to age are also not working properly, and the little screen of the camera does not help, so sometimes I was sure things were on focus but they weren’t.
Do you know that scene in the animated movie “Snow White”, when she goes into the forest and starts singing, and all the animals come out to listen to her?
Well, here in Björkö is the opposite. You go into the forest and all animals disappear. You only see their footprints. You may see, at night, a dark shape far away lurking in the shadows, but this could be anything: a deer, a lynx, or a neighbour burying a corpse.
But yesterday as we were walking to the bus station, we were lucky: we clearly saw a fox, crossing the road. Why did the fox cross the road? That’s another question, but it was unmistakably a fox. Of course, I could not take a picture, but at least I know they exist.
The day was sunny today, and I did take a long walk, but most of the day was spent in preparations for tomorrow’s presentation. But the sun helped with the mood.
It is interesting how the light of the sun changes everything. Yesterday perhaps it was less cold, and even less windy than today, but the dark, wet, grey atmosphere was more conducive to stay inside depressed, drinking “Johnny Walker”, than to take long walks. And yet today there’s the sun, and anything seems possible.
Speaking of “Johnny Walker”, you can’t get it in supermarkets or grocery stores here. In fact, you can’t get any alcohol, except very bad beers with a maximum content of 3,5% alcohol. All other alcoholic beverages must be purchased at the Systembolaget, or “The System”, which is basically a state company that has a monopoly on all alcoholic beverages and sells them at heavily taxed prices. In Norway, a similar company is directly called Vinmonopolet, or “The Wine Monopoly”. If you live in Quebec, it would be the SAQ. So it’s not just a Swedish thing, but it’s pretty strict here.
The issue appears to be that, without such limitations and high prices, many more people would get drunk and become alcoholics, especially during the dark winter months. Now, I am not sure if that is completely true, as in Germany they sell cheap beer and wine and vodka in most stores and supermarkets (beer is like water in Germany), and while there are probably more alcoholics and drunkards there than in Sweden, it did not seem to have stopped German society from functioning pretty well.
But we must also consider that, in Sweden, people tend to be a bit more introvert or less social than in most other countries, and alcohol helps with that, so it’s possible that if alcohol consumption was unrestricted, it would end up being abused.
What is allowed in Sweden, and is not allowed in most other European countries, is Snus. Snus is tobacco snuff, or more exactly, a variant of snuff that is not aspired or inhaled but simply placed in the mouth, between the upper lip and the gums (it already comes in convenient pre-packaged little pouches). This way the nicotine is absorbed bypassing the lungs, so many say that it is healthier than smoking — at least, healthier for the lungs, but some say it may still cause oral cancer, higher blood pressure and bad breath, but at any rate it appears to be much less damaging than smoking cigarettes. It is quite popular here — I kept seeing people with those tins and thinking what kind of candy that was, until someone explained it to me.
And what about drugs, such as weed, meth, heroin? They are all illegal in Sweden, including marihuana, which is now becoming legal in many countries, and the controls are very strict. The idea is to be a zero-drug country, although usage appears to be increasing.
One thing that Swedes could do, is to pop a pill of another drug — Vitamin D — as the lack of sun during winter may make them more deficient in it. Studies indicate that higher amounts of Vitamin D may improve our mood.
Otherwise, just wait for sunny days, even if they are cold, and go outside. When it’s sunny, it’s really beautiful out there in this country.
