Ingmar Bergman is dead...

Ingmar Bergman died in his home on the isle Fårö this morning . See DN and Aftonbladet about this and on the SVT-site (the Swedish television's site).

His Sommar-program in Swedish radio summer 2004.
In English on "Face to face". Another site in English. Svenska filminstitutet (in both Swedish and English). Even more.

Addition August 3: a tip from Helle Klein's blogg. And the site "Face to face" again. My "entrance" to Bergman is through his former wife, the pianist Käbi Laretei, and I haven't seen many of his films (hardly any) but read almost all his books, and from his mothers diary, and a book by Mareth Koskinen based on Bergman's archives, which he doanted some years ago to I am not sure right now... This last book I reacted against, because it was so psycho-analytically influenced!!

Käbi wrote a book some years ago about her life with Bergman, and she in fact mentioned Alice Miller!! I wonder if her son Daniel Bergman had informed her about Miller's existence?

And I think artists of all kinds have been influenced by Freud unfortunately. But Bergman was sceptical towards therapists, so he never entered a t herapy room, as far as I have understood. And I wonder if that wasn't a luck after all...

I also read a chronicle/column, "The day when Bergman phoned me", yesterday in one of our evening newspapers by a young female journalist, Belinda Olsson, who had reacted against Bergman as a father (he was a really lousy father). Bergman phoned her and she thought she was exposed to a joke, but it was Bergman, that was amused over what she had wrïtten, and they had a one hour long talk. Unfortunately this column is only in Swedish.

Käbi Laretei and Ingmar Bergman influenced and inspired each others mutually!! He admired here enormously, admired her intelligence and talent... And Bergman was very interested in music, but thought he was tone-deaf, visited concerts every day almost, when he lived in Stockholm.

Perches and Foppa-tofflor...

I am writing and listening to a CD I bought with music by Ralph Lundsten; "Bewitched" ("Trolltagen" in Swedish), which is ballet-music to a ballet in the Storforsen in the Luleå river I think, on the flat rocks in the Storforsen ("the Big Rapid" in English?).

Picture on perches. I really ate many perches!!! :-)

And a photo on the shoes that are very popular here in Sweden!! Named after the Swedish hockey-player Peter "Foppa" Forsberg.

More from the travelling diary…

Two days in Morjärv and Överkalix...

Yesterday morning I took my walking-poles (ski-poles) and went for a walk in the wood just above the houses in the village Forsbyn, in woods owned by their grandparents (paternal) and now by the three brothers since their parents are dead (my aunt and her husband). After me Sofie and Joel came running, Joel still in his pajamas!!! They should follow me on my walk. Joel in his pajamas too!! (he likes that pajamas!? Is walking almost till lunch in it, hmmm…). :-)

The evening before their uncle (now living in Umeå working as teacher in handicraft instruction) which is spending parts of his vacation in Forsbyn (fishing for instance) spoke about wild animals, such as elks (mooses) and bears in the woods here. The longer we came into the wood the children started to fantasize about bears. Think if we met a bear.

Suddenly when I had thought of turning around and walking home Sofie saw a big dark thing in the distance; was it a stone, or the roots of a tree or – a bear???

Despite I said that I wasn’t afraid at all that we should meet a bear they became more and more scared. And I was even less afraid because these children were speaking like Chip and Dale (Piff and Puff in Swedish), with no interruption and in the mouths of each others the whole walk!! All bears must have heard this and run far away (big bears afraid of small, eager children speaking)!! :-) We walked till we saw that it WAS a stone - actually.

We came home safely!! Phew!! :-)

Out there in the wood the children suddenly saw a very small frog, which looked like the chocolate-frogs in Harry Potter!! They had to investigate it of course!

We spent the rest of the day in the village Överkalix and a small village outside Överkalix (approximately 30 km south from the Arctic circle), where one of my uncles live and where the other uncle has a summer-house.

The summer-house lies near a lake and Sofie and her father took one of the boats and rowed out on the lake and fished. They got some perches (abborrar).

So back home in Forsbyn we grilled these perches and ate them with thin unleavened bread (tunnbröd), a typical bread in the north of Sweden. All this delicious I think!!

A photo over Överkalix from the north and on the Kalix river in Forsbyn. My oldest uncle's wife is a fantastic baker!! So I added a photo of the coffee-table, with the dangerous dragon Joel got when we were to IKEA!!! :-)

And we finished the day in Forsbyn before we drove back to the town Luleå with fixing one of the walls to the woodshed (vedbod) in the cow-house (barn).

I didn't have connection with the net and couldn't use my cell-phone the two days we were there "in the north"!

The day started with rain, as this morning also did. But now he sun has come!!

Visit to IKEA...

We visited IKEA in Haparanda yesterday - a rainy day. Suitable for such a visit. Before we went there a lunch (we really needed energy for our shopping). Sofie, 11 years, helped with her specialty - sliced carrots.

In the middle of the store the restaurant laid (then one was a bit hungry!!). And there you could park your carriage with what you had picked in it!! It looked a bit fun, so I couldn't resist taking photos of it. All carriages properly parked there!!!

And I took a photo of the carriage with what I had purchased!! (I was quite satisfied with my shopping!). :-)

In the car after our shopping we voted for if we should drive over the river, Torne älv, to Finland. The majority wanted and thus won!! Then it started to rain even more, which you can see on the car-windows.

And I managed to take photos from the car. Pictures from the toll (if someone should wonder what the motive was on one of the photos, a photo with a lot of rain on the car windows).

The last photo is taken near a place called Kamlunge, when we were almost back to my aunts home.

So - I have been in Finland this summer!! :-)

Lingonpaj/cowberry pie...

Joel 8 år och jag har gjort lingonpaj. När han skulle prova den som efterrätt efter lunchen rynkade han ögonbrynen och tyckte pajen var litet sur! :-) Kanske kan man reducera mängden lingon. Eller servera den med tjinuskisås, som är ganska söt? Kanske är detta en paj mer för vuxna än barn? Men att laga den däremot var ganska kul!! Jag tyckte den var ganska god och kan tänka mig att göra den igen!!
Här kommer receptet.

Lingonpaj (Cowberry pie).

Pajdeg (pie dough):
100 gram smör eller margarin (100 gram butter or margarine)
2, 5 dl vetemjöl (2, 5 deciliter wheat flour)
2 msk socker (2 tablespoons=2x15 milliliter, i.e. 30 milliliter, sugar)
0, 5 tsk bakpulver (0, 5 teaspoonful baking-powder, 1 teaspoonful=5 milliliter)

Smält smöret (melt the butter).
Blanda mjöl, socker och bakpulver (mix wheat flour, sugar and baking powder). Rör ner detta i det smälta smöret (mix butter and the flour-mix). Tryck ut degen i en pajform 23 centimeter i diameter (make a pie-shell in a pie-form).

Fyllning (stuffing?):
3/4 liter lingon (0, 75 liter cow-berries)
1, 5 dl socker (2, 5 deciliter sugar)
1 msk potatismjöl (1 table-spoon=15 milliliter potato-flour)
1 kryddmått kanel (1 milliliter cinnamon)

Blanda ingredienserna till fyllningen och häll i pajskalet (mix the ingredients to the stuffing and put in the pie-shell).

Grädda i 225 graders ugn i cirka 25 minuter (bake in a 225 Celsius degrees warm oven circa 25 minutes).

Ät med vispad grädde eller vaniljglass (eat with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream).
-//-
Joel, 8 years, and I made this cow berry pie. But when he should try to eat the pie he thought it was a bit sour!!! :-) So maybe one can reduce the amount of cow berries! :-) Maybe this is also more a pie for grown ups??

I took the bike for a tour in the morning. Out on the bike I suddenly got an idea; why not cycle to my youngest uncle. Said and done. It took 24 minutes, nd when I came there they had gone to their sumer house 100 km north!! So I have been out on a long morning tour o bike,one hour and 40 minutes.

My cousin Bengt said that I had cycled 20 km!! But I enjoyed it! Really needed to come out and get some exercise.

Tomorrow we are perhaps going to the newly opened IKEA department store in Haparanda (opened in November I think?). Not that I am very fond of shopping (which I am not at all), but I need some new quilt cover bags (and the IKEA quality is said to be good, and fairly cheap too)... And it would be fun to see this store that is so much spoken about here in Sweden.

And on Sunday I think we will go to the place where my maternal grandparents lived, Överkalix. Approximately 30 km below the arctic circle.

Joel plays Dragon Fable with an intense interest!! Really! All grown ups get thorough information about everything that happens and all figures he meets in this computer-game on the net!! I must admit I have difficulties to capture everything he tells in all eagerness!!

In this game he is a magician (of course, Harry Potter is the favorite number one!!), and Joel has a domestic animal, a pinguine called Linus (inspired by the operative system Linux!! His both parents are engineers from college), purchased for 300 gold (??)!! And when he is talking about the game he uses the English words in a Swenglish way (almost as my English?)!! Talking about "levlar" instead of "levels". And "levlarna" instead of "the levels"! It sounds pretty fun! He is so cute when he is telling one, not standing still, but jumping, running, doing somersaults, watching one with his pepper-brown eyes (not so usual for Swedish kids or people!! But I have brown-eyed cousins here!!!). You really have to be concentrated to follow him!! His fantasy is enormous!!

Some high thinking about integrity...

Fairly early in the morning: I have come to think about the topic integrity... Have read in Kirkengen's books a little in the middle of "touristing"... A topic I think I will develop further later, when I have more time. Now in the morning the house is sleeping...

Kirkengen writes about how violations of integrity leads to illness... And that is preferably violations in childhood. And this illness comes in different ages, sometimes not before the upper middle-age. And this illness isn't only of psychological or psychiatric nature but also of somatic (and psycho-somatic).

Integrity has with boundaries to do!?? Respecting them...

Bosch also writes about this (see earlier blogpost about this). In first hand she has explored which effects violations of sexual integrity has on health. But she mentions other kinds of violations of integrity. She also writes about medical making in biomedical interventions leading to illness stemming from sexual violation in the bottom, which the care-giver has problems to deal with. And the effects of this.

She means that her study provides evidence that psychiatric and somatic medicine, "by means of a naturalist theory and an objectivist methodology, contributes to the silencing f social and relational pathology" (page 7 in "Inscribed bodies").

All of us have probably been exposed to violations of our integrity early in life and during our whole upbringing,more or less. Some more and others less, thus in different degrees. And of different kinds.

This causes problems, more or less severe??

The worse case of distrust, is that paranoia??

I have had a talk with a friend about these topics, and about the topic communication... About communicating, about communication... About talking.

The difficulty of where shall I keep secret ad when not? When shall I open up and when be careful about that? When can my openness be misused and when isn't there such a risk? Are questions I have thought further on...

This is highly thinking, in a sort of diary manner.

And as a thought I got a tip to an article about limit-setting and a following discussion on this, on "Grensesettning - barnas behov?" ("Limit setting- the children's needs?"), when I actually was thinking over this topic.

In this article it stands something in the style:

“Through history: In relations where there is asymmetry in power the stronger part has often put forward his/her use of power as the satisfying of the weaker’s needs. But can this hide needs in he one with power instead?”

To finish this blogpost: I think it is different when it is about children and when it is about grown up this all; children are really the ones "under", but as grown up you have options, you can chose to a much higher degree, unless you aren't dependent ? As at a work-pace, or even worse you are in a concentrations-camp or something like that!!?

Children-adult-relations demands the deepest respect from the grown ups side (including self-knowledge to an as high degree as possible), grown ups between demands something else: a mutual respect? Where both have the same rights and "duties", to communicate not least...

Found an interesting article in this blogpost.

Kulturhuset i Luleå/the Culture-house in Luleå...

About this house (only in Swedish though) here and here. The house is called "Lady in red".

We cycled down to the town and house.

Visit to the Ralph Lundstensgården...

We visited the place where the Swedish electronic music composer Ralph Lundsten grew up. He was born in Ersnäs outside Luleå in Norrbotten (the north of Sweden) October 06, 1936, and grew up with an uncle (brother to his mother) as foster father.

About him in English (Wikipedia). About Ralph Lundstengården in English.

His home-site in Swedish, and about the place where he grew up, Ralph Lundstensgården in Swedish.

We have also visited the new Culture-house here in Luleå and I will blog about that later too.

Addition: the stone-walls to the cow-house or barn were really thick, almost one meter?? And this farm wasn't one of the poorer!??

I write with children around, who have a lot of energy, hence the manner in which I write now, even more than ever!! :-)

Artikeltips...

Dan Greider om ”Har du det bra?” om valfrihet och om tron på individen.

Erik Berg om skolan. Han skriver bland annat apropå socialdemokraternas rådslag om skolan:

”Vad man därför kan begära av socialdemokraternas rådslag om skolan, om de verkligen vill genomföra en omprövning och inte bara tänker sig en inövad akt av konstlad ödmjukhet och därefter fortsatt idékapitulation /…/ Klarar (s) av att erkänna detta, (verkar det jobbigt kan det räcka med bara några av punkterna), så har man en fullgod och riktig motbild mot den nuvarande regeringens absurda problembeskrivning om jämlikhet som ett problem och nya lärarbefogenheter, ordningsbetyg, fler betyg och nationella prov som lösningen. Då kan ni också med nytt förtroende visa att Björklunds disciplinskola inte är en lösning utan ett steg tillbaka, en anpassning och en kapitulation, samt att alternativet är att, med tillskjutna resurser, istället ta ett nytt kliv framåt i arbetet med att skapa världens mest demokratiska och jämlika skola. Inte av ideologiska skäl, för ni gillar jämlikhet, utan för att det är den mest effektiva pedagogiken och det bästa sättet att återställa arbetsro, ordning och kvalité i skolan.”

-//-
And a tip about a readers’ letters on Millers web (written by a person with a blog!!!).

At the countryside in Norrbotten...

”Myternas historia” av Karen Armstrong…

Kusin visade mig boken ”Myternas historia” av Karen Armstrong (Albert Bonniers förlag), på baksidan står bl.a.:

”Karen Armstrong tar oss med på myternas historia från paleolitiska perioden och till de senaste 500 årens vetenskapliga revolution och dess försök att ogiltigförklara mytens betydelse för våra liv.

Människan behöver både myten och vetenskapen, menar hon och varnar för vår egen tids undanskuffande av den mytiska dimensionen till förmån för renodlat vetenskapligt tänkande: Armstrong ser tragedin den 11 september som en direkt följd av att människan inte längre känner sig länkad till en större helhet genom myten. Som en utväg ser hon överraskande nog litteraturen: vår tids myter. Vår tids bearbetning av kollektiva trauman och meningsskapande berättelser, skapas inte längre av religionen utan av litteratur och konst…”

En annan vinkling än John Bergers (se tidigare blogginlägg)?! Om historia/livshistorier och berätta den/få berätta den, att det inte hindras.

Litteraturen – att berätta historier, sin egen och andras, och sin egen genom andra figurer??

Detta satte igång saker hos mig. Om vad som nu sker i samhället känns det – en backlash. Komplexa sammanhang och samband görs förenklade, eller försöker man förenkla?? Mer eller mindre medvetet.

Ville gärna ha denna notering kvar och eventuellt komma tillbaka till den och utveckla den.

Thoughts a summer’s day…

At last some summer warmth. Am going to try to sit out and write…

I have had some email-exchanges with a friend and this has made me think on a lot of topics. One is the issue “information”.

Not informing is a power tool Berit Ås has said (already many years ago, it can even be 20 years ago I think!!). You can withhold information, both consciously and unconsciously or both/and.

In a Gestalt-group I joined almost ten years ago, there were many bosses or former bosses (and almost all were younger than I strikes me now), one who had been a fairly high boss in a well-known company here. His strategy, consciously, was not steering his staff/the employees under him, by telling them where he stood, what he thought, afraid of stifling their creativity if I remember right and interpreted him right. He kept secret about all this.

He went into the wall. Suddenly felt he had no feelings, no senses, he couldn’t perceive the environment. I think he thought this was fairly scary. And he left his job; got a leaving compensation (avgångvederlag in Swedish), he could live well on for a period (I don’t know or remember how long). Sought counselling, bought a dog… Joined this Gestalt therapy group (four weekends during almost half a year).

And he had got problems in the relation with the man he lived with too… Doubting his whole life? Questioning it? Yes, he had just passed 40 (was 43 then?)!! A 40-year crisis?? Already grey-haired… (a side-track: dad got a crisis when he was 44 and actually he thought it was a 40-years crisis, and that he even had these thoughts and expressed them was VERY unusual, that he confided his inner thoughts and feelings in that way. He got problems with swallowing food or something then, or felt he couldn’t breathe?? I was then 10 years, and got problems me too, similar. Mom wanted to photograph me and dad beside each others, but I didn’t want to be photographed with him, but obeyed. These photos are still left somewhere. I was taken to a psychologist, who tested my IQ, that’s how they handled such things then!!?? The answers to my problems were that I understood too much. “Damn that!!??” Did the child think so? I have weak memories of this test, of one was a cube built on smaller cubes and I should estimate how many cubes this cubes contained. I think I managed it).

On a session the therapist was struck by the thought/feeling that if you aren’t plain or clear (tydlig in Swedish) people don’t know what to react on. So this can be a protection; not to be clear with ones “purposes” (and that you don’t have any purposes either perhaps?)… You protect yourself against reactions, questions from the surrounding.

But this boss didn’t only make himself invisible to the people under him but also to himself!!?? And he was the oldest child of four (four brothers I think. I don’t think he had any sisters?? His father was very strict and demanding, a fairly high boss e too, and his mother very weak and unsure of herself and submissive if I remember right).

Is it the same with information: if you don’t inform as clearly as you can or work on your information people don’t know what they shall react against or on?? And maybe one doesn’t want them to either!!?? More or less consciously? You don’t want reactions, people getting the opportunity to question etc.? But a side-effect might be that the disappointment comes later and very strongly!!?? So you have to deal with it anyway, you just push things into the future? And the confidence and trust in you becomes lower? (maybe this also is a reflection of your own insecurity, both on yourself and in what you want to achieve?? The more insecure the more you are holding things for yourself and maybe also behave authoritative and even authoritarian?? To hide things?)

And I also came to think that small things can be collected in a heap; if you resonate in terms of “what is this to noise about (minimizing things??)” things can really grow to a volcanic eruption!!?? And thus really cause harm, irreparable. As the friend wrote: “small wounds has to be taken seriously too!!!”

This blogpost was triggered more by work-things than by personal things and relations. I thought when I started writing, but now I don’t know… This is true for other relations and circumstances than only work- too, and for me too!!?? The difficulty of communicating!!??

I wonder what is lying in the bottom of my thoughts and reactions and concerns about this issue/matter… I have my thoughts…

To really cooperate, and risk control and power by really starting to communicate (this parents also uses?? Strikes me now. So it starts already at this level?)?? The topic I have discussed with the friend above came to be the topic power and control.

Yes, communication can be scary too!!?? That to “keep conversation alive”!!??

And it is probably understandable why…

But the effects can be destructive and/or self destructive??? And that’s not good. Especially the more power you have; if you are a boss with power over others working-life an working-conditions, if you are a high leader in society, a parent towards a child, a teacher towards a pupil/student or any other relation where you are an authority of any kind!!?? Just some thoughts a nice summer’s day…

About Berit Ås: in English (Wikipedia).
In Swedish, here and here and here.

Addition July 24: I read on a site about symptom-fixing, addiction in doctors and experts and gurus and their treatment… (I dropped the link to the site, is in an email, but nmow I have ligged out from my email-box). Apropos treatment of addictions. Replacing one addiction with another... I can well understand if people do... So this you shall not moralize about!?? But do the helpers need to be a sort of... how shall I express this? The stronger? The upper? This I can be much more ironical about??

The photos taken yesterday, in Hälsingland. Today it's Norrbotten next; a tour on 850 km. By car. I am driving on my own...

PS. to the blogpost about Lev Vygotsky...

PS. A spontaneous and silent reflection now in the morning: Since Vygotsky it has happened a lot in research of the brain... What is lacking in all these pedagogical ideas are underlying causes, such as how the child has been treated and allowed to express itself - or not being allowed to express itself...

Expressing itself in different ways; how is it expressed in small children and older and how do you handle it as "outsider"?? Do we see it in their hearing, seeing, understanding, in their fine-motor movements, in their ability to learn, to concentrate and in focusing... But for to cope with this one as grown up has to have a certain extent of self-knowledge... But this work you have to do much on your own, because you don't get help with this really if you seek such help (in therapy etc. and I wonder if you get help with a lot of different "techniques", these only give short-term help for yourself?)...

I have my reflections from my youngest sister and her work (as helper) and her interest for things like zone-therapy now for instance... That's the help one gets? To cope with things, i.e., to survive (and not to live a little more, be more alive, not almost living dead?)??? And maybe one shall not moralize over this?? But I wonder if this means that you are hindered from passing things further (I don't think you are, for not to pass them further it needs something more)), these techniques to cope will not make you sensitive, empathic, enlightened, more than to a certain, limited degree?? And maybe a very limited degree??

And you yourself go on living a half-life?? Maybe that's ok for many though?

Got an email from a friend who wrote about a family-member which didn't know about Alice Miller and soon his studies to psychologist are finished. My friend had mentioned her name. When my youngest sister studied at college for social studies (1985 and forward?) Miller-books were literature in therapist-studies... They aren't any more?? Because her ideas are more controversial again?? Too controversial? Why is that? Does this have to do with what Judith Herman writes about the controversial topic "trauma"?? Where periods of enlightenment has been followed by periods of back-lashes?? As when Freud took his trauma-idea back an created his drive-theories?

Even instrumental-pedagogues read developmental psychology... But why doesn't a child develop "as it shall"?? hat question isn't addressed!!?? Wasn't when I studied, and I think it isn't today either?

Maybe I will write more about this?? Thus more about things concerning my work!!?? Which I have avoided so far very much I think?? And, yes, I have worked for 30 years as teacher (and a lot as church-musician have worked a lot, too much during all years: to be good enough?)... So I must have learned something hopefully, if I am not extremely hard-learned (ironically) and totally insensitive (which I maybe am?? Even more ironical)?

And working with music you are working with emotions, with expressions etc. Maybe that's no guarantee for sensitivity??? For fantasy, imagination, seeing, hearing etc.? We can be as blind as many others??

I have tried to develop my knowing not only in my work, but also tried to work with myself, a lot really... And I have done all this out of interest, curiosity, eagerness to understand... Not for careers sake...

To be personal... (a bit angry and rather ironical am I??)

Yes, we work with technical things, and we use different methods whether we want it or not!!?? But I don't want to be a "technical teacher"... I TRY to go on my gut-feeling, if feelings are to trust?

Maybe I will take this further later? (I hope I spelled right now, I don't check what I have written now).

Addition July 26: A readers’ letter on Millers web from a student of counselling and psychotherapy on Ireland about Alice Miller.

About Lev Vygotsky (Vygotskij in Swedish)...

Came to think about a pedagogue, psychologist (it stood differently in the Swedish and English texts at Wikipedia. But first he studied pedagogy and later psyhology) and philosopher, Lev Vygotsky (Vygotskij in Swedish), which was mentioned when I was student in a 5 academic point course to tutor for teachers in training at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm 2002/03. And had to google on him.

I quote from Wikipedia:

“…he attended the Institute of Psychology in Moscow (1924–34), where he worked extensively on ideas about cognitive development, particularly the relationship between language and thinking. His writings emphasized the roles of historical, cultural, and social factors in cognition and argued that language was the most important symbolic tool provided by society. Vygotsky died of tuberculosis in 1934,
leaving a wealth of work that is still being explored.”

And further:

“Being a pioneering psychologist, Vygotsky was also a highly prolific author: the collection of his major works contains 6 volumes written over roughly 10 years. Vygotsky's interests in the fields of developmental psychology, child development, and education were extremely diverse. His innovative work in psychology includes several key concepts such as
• psychological tools, mediation, and internalization
• the zone of proximal development
and covers such diverse topics as the origin and the psychology of art, development of higher mental functions, philosophy of science and methodology of psychological research, the relation between learning and human development, concept formation, interrelation between language and thought development, play as a psychological phenomenon, the study of learning disabilities and abnormal human development (aka defectology), etc.”

And even more:

“Vygotsky investigated child development and how this was guided by the role of culture and interpersonal communication. Vygotsky observed how higher mental functions developed through social interactions with significant people in a child's life, particularly parents, but also other adults. Through these interactions, a child came to learn the habits of mind of her/his culture, including speech patterns, written language, and other symbolic knowledge through which the child derives meaning and affected a child's construction of her/his knowledge.”

Yes, his ideas are of particular interest in music-pedagogy??

Links:
In Swedish on Wikipedia.
And an essay about his ideas I think was interesting (in Swedish).
Review of a book about Vygostky in Swedish.
In English from Wikipedia.
A site in English with links called “Vygotsky resources”.

Addition: I don't know how to express this, but in my teacher's work I don't feel so technical... And I don't want to be either at all.

About an artist (painter)…

When I sat at the hair-dresser I looked in magazines with a lot of reportages and a lot of photos over people as it use to be in these of which one of all these reportages and photos was about the Swedish artist Karin Mamma Andersson.

She is in fact youngest daughter to mom’s perhaps best friend in the village Överkalix where they both grew up!! The world is really little. Now I had to google on this Karin.

Here some links: her curriculum vitae in Swedish and in English, and here and here from the Moderna museum in Stockholm about exhibitions she has had there.

She lives with the colleague Jockum Nordström (in Swedish) and they have two sons Valentin, 19, and Rudolf, 16 år.

She was born in February 1962 in Luleå in Norrbotten, in the north of Sweden, where her mom still lives.

She is the woman behind the Nobel-diplomas in literature 2004, 2005 and 2006 to Elfriede Jellinek, Harold Pinter and Orhan Pamuk and got the finest art-prize in Scandinavia, "Carnegie art award", 2005, with the prize-sum of one million Swedish crowns.

She explained her name with that Karin and Andersson are two very common names in Sweden. And when she got children she was called "mamma" by them (as we call our moms here!!!).And then she started to call herself Karin Mamma Andersson, a little for fun, this combination is after all not common at all. And she has continued with this, and now it has become such a "trade mark" too, so she has kept it...

About her in Swedish.
Examples on her paintings at this site.
Articles about her in our two biggest newspapers: Here and here and here. With photos on her.

The painting to the left above is Karin's and the one to the right Jockum's.

Jochum was born 1963 in Stockholm. Addition July 22: He is also author and illustrator of child-books...












It was together with Karin's mom my mom crushed the car-lights on a car-wreck when mom was 4 (or maybe 5) years and Karin's mom one year younger!! Mom got furiously beaten for this with a belt by her father, my grand-father, for this. Sounds horrible, with the beating...

I don't know what has happened with Blogger?? I have lost buttons to edit with, no matter if I use Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox (or no matter what computer I use; I have blogged on four different computers the last three or four weeks), and when I down-load photos I can't move them or put them where I want as I could earlier!! Why I wonder?

The photos are from articles in our two biggest newspaper, DN and Svd.

Our contempt for weakness…

A Norwegian friend informed me about who Harald Ofstad was, the man that was referred to in a review of new book I wrote about in blogpost with tips about articles yesterday; professor in practical philosophy at the University of Stockholm, born in Norway, and moved back there when he retired 1986. He died at nearly 74 (thus 1995??).

Thank you!! He seems to be an interesting man.

She also linked to an essay about him; “Our contempt for weakness” (this essay is only in Swedish, “Vårt förakt för svaghet”).

Ofstad wrote several books, one of them with the heading above, about Hitler and Nazi-Germany. I think this is on the same theme as the previous blogpost (Arthur Silber’s essays), but Ofstad never writes about childhood and upbringing though.

I also found a readers’ letter on Miller’s web today “The Hidden Key” see later in this blogpost about it and a link to it there (And see this letter to Miller today about “Genital examination of girls”).

In the essay about Ofstad and his book it stood that Ofstad had pointed out that the most essential trait in the Nazism is that the strong shall rule over the weak and that the weak is worth contempt, since he allow himself to be controlled/ruled over. The core is contempt for weakness. A contempt that expresses feelings of disgust and loathing at everything that is weak, sick or suffering from defeat.

The head source in Ofstad’s investigation is Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and “kampf”, the Swedish “kamp” and the English “struggle” (“My Struggle” according to Wikipedia) is an essential motive in the Nazi ideology, besides the concept-pair strong-weak. The existence was seen as a struggle. And all stately activity had as task to increase the ability to fight, so this fight would lead to victory and thus prove Germany’s right to rule over all other states and races!

This implied a risk though: if the nation proved to be inferior in a trial of strength this would with logical necessity mean that it was worth contempt.

Hitler leant on Charles Darwin’s findings? Which claimed that it is a fight between strong and weak going on in the existence, and Hitler concluded from this that the struggle for the survival of the strong should go on. Hitler was worried over the principle about the struggle for survival was put out of stake. The serious with this according to Hitler’s feelings was that the human-species was about to be destroyed!!! My interpretation: Not enough strong or hard?? Weakened? Degenerated?? Therefore it was a negative view towards social-help (in form of money?), social insurances of different kinds, help to pensioners, invalids and other disabled, all these who could be seen as weak in the society’s eyes under Hitler!!

Hitler criticized democracy for leading to irresponsibility. In the place of democracy he wanted to put the leader, and the leader didn’t have to be elected by the people, he is chosen by his superior abilities to lead. The leader’s will is always right, as he is said to represent the people’s real will (as they don’t know – yet??).

One only obeyed orders and the leader wasn’t responsible for anyone.
In this there was a built in conflict: the Germans, the Aries, is the elite, but the outcome of the fight or struggle is the decisive proof of the order of rang. The ones that are the victorious are the elite. “This consequence, that power is right, can have fuelled the actions: only if I was victorious I had the right to fight as I did, and coarsening: to justify my brutality I resort to more and worse brutality to force the victory forward (for myself) that is the only that can justify my actions/acting.”

The species that is ruling over other species is the one that shall rule! The criteria of power and strength are that one which in fact is ruling and which manages to rule! When the luck in war turned these principles of course came in conflict with each others. Therefore Hitler had to commit suicide???

Do we see this today too? But milder? Or more hidden? On all different levels: prestige here and there, in all different relations?? On a personal level as on national levels? Who is the strongest??

In the readers’ letter on Millers we. “The Hidden Key”, the writer wrote:

“In the Americans (illegal) invasion of Iraq in 2003,the term for the (air) assault on Baghdad was called ‘Shock and Awe’.
Last night while I was considering this, I realized that this idea of being both SHOCKED and AWED by extreme violence, (from above), is EXACTLY how a small child sees and experiences a violent, abusive, unpredictable parent.
Shocked by the sudden violence, and at the same time in AWE of the power of it!
How do I know that?
Because I myself was such a child.
Small, defenseless,(excepting suppression),totally at the mercy of my raging parents.
This MUST be (also) the plight of those caught on the ground of these attacks, I thought. Terrified, helpless, with nowhere to go to be safe, no refuge except for ‘faith in God’.”

Miller answers:

“Yes, among other things it might be the AWE that hinders so many people to realize the shock. By getting rid of this awe, they gain the liberty to eventually face their truth.“

And much is about this awe here and there? Some need to instill awe in others, consciously and unconsciously? And some are prone to feel it, for authoritarian and even totalitarian people and ideologies?? Some admits to it and some don't? Some are hiding it both to themselves and others? And these phenomena has roots and reasons I think... Explanations to them, but no excuses for the results of them - at all!?? There are no excuses for harming or exploiting anyone I think. Neither for perpetrator nor victim. The perpetrator isn't excused with his/her bad childhood, and you definitely aren't allowed to treat a former, or any, victim badly because of his/her victimization and/or "weakness"!!?? See Kirkengen here!!

And for the hundred time: I think what Pincus has written about this is worth considering!!! About societal approval lifting the lid...

The English word “awe” means “respektfull fruktan” or “inge fruktan (respekt)” in Swedish, so that’s the English word of today.

From two essays by Arthur Silber/från två essäer av Arthur Silber...

Addition July 20: I am so grateful to what Arthur Silber has written, and I wish I was even better on English – it is a bit of a struggle to read for me, but worth that struggle!! And everything that is written on this blog views where my interests lies right now: what is chosen and what I am lifting forward. I want to underline. Where my interests lie just now, because later I would perhaps lift something else forward? Because when I reread texts, books etc. I suddenly see new things…

And, once again, I wish I could blog with music, share that too!! And I have understood (rightly I hope) that Arthur Silber is interested in music (opera)? Right now I am listening to music I would want to share, in fact one of our new hymns here with a text I like so much too! But my knowledge about technique is still very limited!??

From two of Arthur Silber’s Miller-essays;

“THE ROOTS OF HORROR: Instilling Obedience and Denial in Childhood” and “THE ROOTS OF HORROR: The Institutionalized Destruction of Innocence -- and of Life.”

I think he captures the current political and societal climate even here in Sweden!!! The media. The lack of civil courage I think. Which the articles I referred to today were, and are, about…

The physician Christina Doctare wrote about the topic civil courage and pointed out that the word courage, kurage in Swedish, is related to the French word Coeur, which means heart or hjärta in Swedish. So it is clear that civil courage has with heart to do, with having feelings, emotions, empathy!!??

I will probably try to make a sort of translation to Swedish of this text later...

Addition this evening:

"... this failure to pay attention to these issues and the stubborn refusal to acknowledge their demonstrable importance and explanatory power, are in themselves confirmatin of the crucial nature of these ideas."

“For the majority of people, certain identifications -- no matter how well-documented and how strongly proven -- are simply too dangerous to be countenanced. And thus the tragedy of world history is reenacted over and over, and into our own times /…/

Yet again, this reveals how deeply distorted our media coverage has become… /…/

…in our current cultural climate, people will do almost anything to distract themselves from the issues and the facts that ought to matter. The great majority of people spend almost all their time discussing issues about which it is close to impossible to obtain a complete version of the facts, issues which are largely irrelevant in any case -- when facts which are staring them in the face, and which carry unmistakably significant implications, are completely ignored /…/

…what could possibly explain this studied refusal to acknowledge what is staring one in the face? Why would so many people be so resistant to facing what is plainly right in front of them? And the majority of people will not even acknowledge the existence of this problem: they will not admit that they are ignoring a crucial topic that is lying in plain view.

Nonetheless, they are. When the world continues to hurtle to what may well be its destruction, and when people refuse to even acknowledge what is happening, you are witnessing a worldwide version of The Big Lie: the lie is so huge, that its very size prevents people from identifying what it is right there in front of them, screaming the fact of its existence in their face /…/

And I say that for the following reason: it is society's refusal to acknowledge the profound damage that is inflicted on innocent children in innumerable ways, every single day, that is the deepest root of most, if not all, of the evils that confront us today /…/

And that is the other part of this overwhelmingly significant and largely ignored problem -- this denial by almost all adults of the pain that was inflicted on them as children. This is the manner in which adults demonstrate how disconnected they are from their own pasts, how they deny and become dissociated from their own souls, and how they become so willing to pass on unthinking cruelty to children of the next generation.

And this is also why people are willing to cling to political beliefs and ideologies which lead to nothing but destruction and death, as we shall begin to see in the next parts of this series.”

“In her book, The Untouched Key, Alice Miller discusses the story of Abraham and Isaac at length. She had been looking for a jacket illustration for her earlier book, Thou Shalt Not Be Aware, and came across the Rembrandt painting which I suggested you look at. She notes that ‘the father's hand completely covers the son's face, obstructing his sight, his speech, even his breathing. The main concerns expressed in my book (victimization of the child, the Fourth Commandment admonishing us to honor our parents, and the blindness imposed on children by parents) seemed to find a central focus in Abraham's gesture.’ /…/

As I sat in the archive looking at the pictures, I suddenly saw in them the symbolic representation of our present situation. Inexorably, weapons are being produced for the obvious purpose of destroying the next generation. Yet those who are profiting from the production of these weapons, while enhancing their prestige and power, somehow manage not to think of this ultimate result. Like Abraham, they do not see what their hands are doing, and they devote their entire attention to fulfilling expectations from 'above,' at the same time ignoring their feelings. They learned to deny their feelings as children; how should they be able to regain the ability to feel now that they are fathers? It's too late for that. Their souls have become rigid, they have learned to adapt. They have also forgotten how to ask questions and how to listen to them. All their efforts are now directed toward creating a situation--war--in which their sons too will be unable to see and hear /…/

… the questions of the younger generation are silenced. To doubt the wisdom of the state is regarded as treason. Any discussion or consideration of alternative possibilities is eliminated at a single stroke /…/ The younger generation will march, sing songs, kill and be killed, and they will be under the impression that they are carrying out an extremely important mission. The state will indeed regard highly what they are doing and will reward them with medals of honor, but their souls--the childlike, living, feeling part of their personality--will be condemned to the utmost passivity /…/ For many years Alice Miller was a lone voice in the dark. Her message, devastatingly simple but with the kind of implications people refused to face, was considered far too controversial: violence towards children engenders a violent society.

Gradually, though, she has won wide acceptance around the world for her central theory that abuse runs in the family. The slapped child of one generation becomes the abuser of the next. Violence towards 'a bad child' may create a bad adult and eventually foster the creation of a bad society.

Her latest book, Paths Of Life, takes this argument still further, declaring that tyranny and totalitarianism are born in the nursery. Having studied some of the worst dictators known to the modern world - Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Ceaucescu - she says all four were systematically beaten throughout their childhood, and all denied the pain.

Dr Miller says: 'These men learned very early to glorify cruelty and to be able to justify it to themselves without remorse.' Crucially, they were also born into societies in which violence towards children was commonplace. In Hitler's case, for instance, harsh rearing of children was fashionable in Germany in the 1900s. So there is a causal connection between that practice and the terror unleashed 40 years later by so many willing executioners /…/

…why is it so hard not to smack a child? Why do people who wouldn't dream of striking their friends slap their children?
Her answer, equally straightforward, compels us to re-examine both our history as children and our roles as parents:
‘Beating children teaches short term obedience, but in the long term, only violence and anxiety.’

’As beaten children, we have to learn to forget our physical and psychic pain. This blocking out enables us to continue punishing our own children while we insist to ourselves: smacks teach lessons. Sadly, all we are accomplishing is sowing the seeds of cruelty for another generation.’

’Almost everyone agrees that we should not maltreat children, yet they also claim that corporal punishment is not a maltreatment, labeling it as 'educational discipline'.’ /…/ It should educate them into understanding that every beating is a maltreatment, both socially and emotionally.'
I should add, as Miller also discusses in her work, that violence toward children need not involve physical abuse (in which category I include even "occasional" spanking; violence is violence, and the damage it does to a child is incalculable, even if inflicted only once or twice). Parents frequently abuse their children terribly in emotional and psychological ways, and such damage can be just as severe, or even worse. /…/

…and they continue the denial of what was done to them as children, what they are doing to the next generation, and the deadening of the soul that inevitably results /…/

Since authoritarian parents are always right, there is no need for their children to rack their brains in each case to determine whether what is demanded of them is right or not. And how is this to be judged? Where are the standards supposed to come from if someone has always been told what was right and what was wrong and if he never had an opportunity to become familiar with his own feelings and if, beyond that, attempts at criticism were unacceptable to the parents and thus were too threatening for the child? If an adult has not developed a mind of his own, then he will find himself at the mercy of the authorities for better or worse, just as an infant finds itself at the mercy of its parents. Saying no to those more powerful will always seem too threatening to him.

Witnesses of sudden political upheavals report again and again with what astonishing facility many people are able to adapt to a new situation. Overnight they can advocate views totally different from those they held the day before--without noticing the contradiction. With the change in power structure, yesterday has completely disappeared for them /…/

Morality and performance of duty are artificial measures that become necessary when something essential is lacking. The more successfully a person was denied access to his or her feelings in childhood, the larger the arsenal of intellectual weapons and the supply of moral prostheses has to be, because morality and a sense of duty are not sources of strength or fruitful soil for genuine affection. Blood does not flow in artificial limbs; they are for sale and can serve many masters. What was considered good yesterday can--depending on the decree of government of party--be considered evil and corrupt today, and vice versa /…/

This is the case with people who had the good fortune of being sure of their parents' love even if they had to disappoint certain parental expectations. Or with people who, although they did not have this good fortune to begin with, learned later...to risk the loss of love in order to regain their lost self. They will not be willing to relinquish it again for any price in the world.”

Addition: see the readers' letter from Miller's web "Is public exposure dangerous?"
-//-
Min fria översättning av den engelska texten ovan:

Ur två av Arthur Silbers essäer: “Skräckens rötter: bibringande av lydnad och förnekande i barndomen” och ”Skräckens rötter: hävdvunnen förstörelse av oskulden – och av liv.”

Jag tycker att han fångar det nuvarande politiska och samhälleliga klimatet. Media. Avsaknaden av civilkurage. Vilket artiklar jag refererade till tidigare idag handlar om eller speglar.

Läkaren Christina Doctare skrev om civilkurage i sin bok ”Hjärnstress” om jag minns rätt och hon påpekade att kurage är släkt med franskans coeur, dvs. hjärta, alltså har civilkurage med hjärta, känslor, medkänsla, empati att göra.

"... den bristande uppmärksamheten på dessa ämnen och den envisa vägran att erkänna deras bevisliga betydelse/vikt och förklarande makt är i sig själv bevis på den avgörande naturen i dessa idéer. För majoriteten av människor är en viss identifiering, och det spelar ingen roll hur väldokumenterad eller starkt bevisad den är, helt enkelt för farlig för att bli uppmuntrad eller stödd. Och sålunda iscensätts världshistoriens tragik igen och igen och även in i vår tid.

Återigen avslöjar detta hur förvrängd vår medietäckning har blivit [jag håller med!!! Jag klarar inte att läsa vare sig DN eller Svd!! Och inte vissa lokaltidningar heller!].

I vårt nuvarande kulturella klimat gör människor nästan vad som hest för att distrahera sig ifrån ämnen och fakta som borde vara viktiga. Den stora majoriteten människor tillbringar sin tid att diskutera ämnen om vilka det är näst intill omöjligt att få en komplett, full version av fakta, ämnen som är vida irrelevanta i vilket fall – när fakta som stirrar dem i ögonen och vilka bär omisskännligt betydelsefulla innebörder, blir helt ignorerade.

… vad skulle möjligen kunna förklara den utstuderade vägran att erkänna det som stirrar en i ansiktet? Varför är det så många människor som gör motstånd mot att se det som är mitt framför deras ögon? Och majoriteten människor kommer inte ens att erkänna existensen av detta problem: de vill inte medge att de ignorerar ett avgörande ämne som ligger i klar dager.

Hur som helst, de är. När världen fortsätter att stöta ifrån sig det som mycket väl kan vara dess förstörelse och när människor vägrar att ens erkänna vad som händer, åser du en världsvid version av Den stora lögnen: lögnen är så enorm att dess storlek hindrar människor från att identifiera det som finns mitt framför dem, skrikande fakta rakt i deras ansikte.

Och jag påstår det av följande anledning: det är samhällets vägran att erkänna den djupa, grundliga skadan som tillfogas oskyldiga barn på ett oräkneligt antal sätt, vareviga dag, som är den djupaste roten till det mesta, om inte all, ondska som vi möter idag.

Och det är den andra delen i detta överväldigande betydelsefulla och vida ignorerade problem - detta förnekande från nästan alla vuxna av smärtan som tillfogades dem som barn. Detta är sättet på vilket vuxna demonstrerar hur bortkopplade de är från sitt eget förflutna, hur de förnekar och blir dissocierade från sina egna själar och hur de blir så villiga att föra vidare en tanklös grymhet på barnen i nästa generation.

Och det är också därför människor är villiga att klamra sig fast vid politiska åsikter och ideologier som inte leder till något annat än förstörelse och död, som vi ska se i nästa del av denna serie.

I sin bok, “Den dolda nyckeln”, diskuterar Alice Miller historien om Abraham och Isak utförligt. Hon hade sökt en illustration att använda som bokomslag till den tidigare boken ”Du skall inte märka”! Och stötte då på Rembrandts målning. Hon noterar att:

’Faderns hand täcker hela ansiktet på sonen och hindrar dennes seende, tal, ja, även andning. Huvudlinjerna i min bok (offrandet av barnet, det fjärde budet som förmanar oss att hedra föräldrarna och den på barn av föräldrar påtvingade blindheten) verkade finna en central fokus i Abrahams gest.’

När jag satt i arkivet och tittade på bilderna såg jag plötsligt i dem en symbolisk representation av vår nuvarande situation. Obevekligt produceras vapen för den uppenbara avsikten att förstöra nästa generation. Men de som genom vapenproduktionen ökar sin förmögenhet, sin prestige och sin makt lyckas med konststycket att inte tänka på det slutliga resultatet. Precis som Abraham ser de inte vad deras händer gör utan de är helt upptagna av att fylla kraven ’uppifrån’ samtidigt som de ignorerar sina känslor. De lärde sig att förneka sina känslor som barn; hu skulle de vara förmögna att behålla förmågan at känna nu när de är färde? Det är för sent för det. Deras själar har blivit rigida och de har lärt sig att anpassa sig. De har också glömt hur man ställer frågor och hur man lyssnar på dem. Alla deras ansträngningar riktas nu mot att skapa en situation – krig – i vilken deras söner också kommer att bli oförmögna att se och höra.

… frågorna från den yngre generationen är tystade. Att tvivla på visdomen hos staten ses som förräderi. Varje diskussion eller övervägande av alternativa möjligheter är eliminerade i ett enda slag /…/ den yngre generationen kommer att marschera, sjunga sånger, döda och bli dödade och de kommer att stå under intrycket att de utför ett extremt viktigt uppdrag. Staten kommer verkligen också att sätta det de gör högt och belöna dem med hedersmedaljer, men deras själar – de barnlika, levande, kännande delarna av deras personligheter – kommer att vara dömda till den yttersta passivitet /…/ I många år var Alice Miller en ensam röst i mörkret. Hennes budskap, ödeläggande enkelt men med det sorts innebörder som människor vägrar att möta ansikte mot ansikte, sågs alltför kontroversiellt: våld mot barn skapar ett våldsamt samhälle.

Gradvis vann hon dock vida accepterande runt världen för sin centrala teori att övergrepp går i familjen. Det slagna barnet i en generation blir förövaren i den nästa. Våld mot ett ’dåligt barn’ kan skapa en dålig vuxen och slutligen fostra ett dåligtsamhälle.

Hennes senaste bok [då!!], “Vägar i livet”, för detta argument ännu längre, deklarerande att tyranni och att vara totalitär föds i barnkammaren. Efter att ha studerat diktatorer, kända av den moderna världen – Hitler Stalin, Mao och Ceaucescu – säger hon att alla fyra blev systematiskt slagna genom sin barndom och alla förnekade smärtan.

Dr. Miller säger: ’Dessa män lärde sig väldigt tidigt att förhärliga grymhet och att bli förmögna att rättfärdiga det för sig själva utan samvetskval eller ånger.’ Avgörande var också att de fötts in i samhällen i vilka våld mot barn var vardagsmat. I Hitlers fall, till exempel var sträng uppfostran modernt i Tyskland under 1800-talet. Så det finns en orsaksmässig förbindelse mellan denna praktik och terrorn som gavs fria tyglar 40 år senare av så många villiga bödlar /../

… varför är det så svårt att inte smälla ett barn? Varför slår människor sina barn när de inte kan drömma om att slå sina vänner?
Hennes svar, lika rakt på sak, tvingar oss att igen undersöka både vår historia som barn och våra roller som föräldrar:
’Att slå barn lär kortsiktig lydnad, men på lång sikt bara våld och ängslan.’

Som slagna barn måste vi lära oss att glömma vår fysiska och psykiska smärta. Detta blockerande möjliggör för oss att fortsätta straffa våra egna barn medan vi hävdar för oss själva: smällar lär läxor. Sorgligt nog så allt vi gör är att fullända såendet av grymhetens säd i ytterligare en generation /.../

‘Nästan alla är överens om att vi inte ska behandla barn dåligt, ändå hävdar de att kroppsstraff inte är att behandla dåligt, etiketterande det som ‘uppfostrande disciplin’ /…/ Det ska lära dem att förstå att varje slag är att behandla dåligt, både socialt och känslomässigt.
Jag skulle vilja addera, vilket Miller också diskuterar i sitt arbete, att våld mot barn inte behöver innehålla fysiska övergrepp (i vilken kategori jag inkluderar ’tillfälliga’ slag; våld är våld, och skadan det gör mot ett barn är oberäknelig även om det bara skett en eller två gånger). Föräldrar begår ofta hemska övergrepp på känslomässiga och psykologiska sätt och den skadan kan vara minst lika svår/allvarlig, eller kanske värre /.../

… och de fortsätter förnekandet av det som gjordes mot dem som barn, vad de gör mot nästa generation, och dödande av själen som är det oundvikliga resultatet /.../

Eftersom auktoritära föräldrar alltid har rätt, finns det ingen anledning för deras barn att rådbråka sina hjärnor i varje enskilt fall för att avgöra om det som krävs av dem är rätt eller inte. Och hur ska detta kunna bli bedömt? Var är måttstockarna antagna ska komma ifrån om någon alltid har fått höra vad som är rätt och vad som är fel och om han aldrig har haft en möjlighet att bli bekant med sina egna känslor och om, ovanpå allt, försök att kritisera inte accepterades av föräldern och sålunda var för hotande för ett barn? Om en vuxen inte har utvecklat en egen åsikt, då kommer han att vara utlämnad till auktoriteter på gott och ont, precis som spädbarnet är utlämnat till sina föräldrar. Att säga nej till den med mer makt kommer alltid att verka alltför hotfullt för honom /.../

Vittnen till plötslig politisk omvälvning rapporterar igen och igen med vilken förvånande lätthet många människor kan finna sig i den nya situationen. Över natten kan de försvara helt andra åsikter än dem de hade dagen innan – utan att ens notera motsägelsen. Med bytet av maktstruktur har gårdagen helt försvunnit för dem /.../

Moral och pliktutförande är konstgjorda åtgärder som blir nödvändiga när något väsentligt fattas. Ju mer framgångsrikt en person nekats tillgång till sina känslor i barndomen, ju större är arsenalen intellektuella vapen och måste försörjningen av moraliska proteser bli, därför att moralen och känslan för plikt inte är källor till styrka eller fruktbar jord för äkta känslor. Blod flyter inte i konstgjorda lemmar; de är till salu och kan tjäna många herrar Det som ses bra igår kan – beroende på dekret från regeringspartiet – ses som ont och korrupt idag, och vice versa /.../

Detta är fallet med människor som hade den goda lyckan att vara säkra på sina föräldrars kärlek även om de måste göra dem besvikna angående vissa förälderliga förväntningar. Eller med människor som, fastän de inte har haft denna goda tur i början, lärde sig senare… att riskera förlusten av kärlek för att återfå sitt förlorade själv. De kommer inte vara villiga att överge den igen för vilket pris i världen om helst."

From the wooden-castle or hostelry Gästgivars...

From an old hostelry (gästgiveri) we visited yesterday before I went home. They were doing handicraft there when we came... See sites on the net about this place/house: in English and English again here and in Swedish here.

On the photos an old organ, a man carving horses and other things, and articles made of straw (Christmas things).

English word of today "hostelry" which means "värdshus" or "gästgiveri" in Swedish.

Addition after a bike-tour before a dinner (light!! But I am fairly hungry, hmmm...): More about the wooden-castles *) and the most famous of them in the same area as Gästgivars!! I strongly recommend a visit of these sites!! I didn't know about them before!! I lived here, in this area, for 5 years, when I was 18 (when I had moved from Skåne in the south of Sweden) till I was 23!!

See the former blogpost about the linen-county Hälsingland!!

*) Denna hemsida är om Träslottet i Arbrå.