Christmas Eve,,,

the Christmas Eve, painting by the Swedish painter Carl Larsson.

[updated December 26 and 27 in the end]. See the articles "The Warmth of a Swedish Christmas Tree" and "Christmas Eve". In the last article it stands:

"The 'Tomte' is the Swedish name for Santa Claus and originates from a dwarfish guardian of the farm. It was when the artist Jenny Nyström in the 1880s painted the Tomte as a combination of the little goblin and Father Christmas that it became the most important symbol of Christmas in Sweden.

One other central element of Swedish Christmas is the food. The typical meal starts with a smorgasbord - consisting of various kinds of pickled herring, liver pâté, smoked sausages, cabbage, meatballs, 'Jansson's Temptation' (a potato gratin with pickled sprats) and the much longed-for ham - often followed by 'lutfisk' (dried ling previously soaked in lye) and rounded off with rice pudding.

One oddity in Sweden, as in the other Nordic countries, is that the festival culminates on the day before Christmas, i.e. Christmas Eve, 24th December. This is the day when the Christmas lunch or dinner is eaten and the presents distributed. It is also the day when most Swedes watch the incredibly popular Walt Disney cartoons on TV."

Merry Christmas

or

God Jul!

PS. About "jul".

Läs också 14 korta små julsagor och om Jesus och det sociala miraklet av Göran Greider!! Och återigen om det senaste genidraget vad gäller utnämningar av alliansregeringen (kan denne person möjligen ha en massa dyr konst på väggarna hemma, som investering och för att det ser så fint ut?? Sådan som vanligt folk inte har råd med! Och vad har han för böcker i bokhyllan? Vad slags musik lyssnar han på? Lyssnar han alls på musik? Går han på teater eller dansföreställningar, möjligen på film, annat än av ren snobbism? Ursäkta ironin).

Jinge om att floskelbotten är nådd. Helle Klein nämner samma sak som Jinge…

Addition December 26: See this Readers' letter at Millers webb about being punished for telling the truth. Do we see this in adult-life too: people being punished for telling (the) truth(s)??

It also struck me about empathy deficits again, now concerning therapists. Isn't it empathy deficits from a/the therapist that doesn't/didn't understand the needs in a small (or even bigger) child for care, attention, genuine respect, being listened to really etc.? And from the therapist saying: "But haven't we spoken enough of childhood now?" What should then be spoken about? Don't the roots, the origins of problems later, come from childhood? Even if the adult, no matter how harmed in childhood, has responsibility for her/himself, for doing something about her/his problems (but she/he also need proper help for this, and is entitled to demand that too).

Diminishing, belittling, even blatantly ignoring and denying the truth!!?? And by this also walking in the powers' leading-strings? In parent-figures leading-strings!? Though neither behaving destructively nor self-destructively, neither by ignoring clients truths or just by dealing with them intellectually nor harming themselves (and none of these things lies in the genes I think, genes aren't to blame for neither destructiveness nor self-destructiveness).

Feeling (genuine) empathy would be too risky for the therapist? Then he/she would be in risk of coming in contact with his/her own childhood and her/his experiences then??

So afraid for the parents still without being aware of it??

Tillägg 27 december: se denna läsarartikel om psykologer.