rite de passage

                            

In Norway, as in many other countries, teenagers go through a coming of age ritual to mark the leaving behind of childhood. In the old days, this was a ritual to mark the entrance of adulthood; a 'passage' from childhood to adulthood.

That was before James Dean cemented the teenager into our culture forever; a period of time which seem to expand (in both ends) with each new generation. People don't seem to become grown-ups anymore.

Anyway.

The jewish Bar/Bat Mitzvah, the hindu Upanayanam, the christian Confirmation, the japanese Seijin shiki, even the U.S.' Sweet Sixteen; within different cultural contexts, they all mark the same transition. In Norway, there are two options; the christian and the humanist, which both take place the year the teenager in question turns 15. 

Our soon-to-be 15 year old son chose the humanist ceremony. Once a week for 6 months he met up with other teenagers and a group leader to discuss all kinds of subjects related to ethics, humanism, human rights, alcohol and drugs, immigration and class, sex/abortion/homosexuality etc. 

The whole thing culminated in a solemn ceremony, and a family party. Speeches were required. So I took the opportunity to tell my son how lucky he is to be born here, now, and receiving applaud, gifts, and cake, instead of all the other things he might have had to endure were he born in a different culture or at another time. For instance (and yes, some of them are hard to believe, hence the photos - they were all shot during the speech):

He didn't have to get undressed and cover himself in ash.

He didn't have to spend several days and nights in a cave, deprived of food, sleep and water.

He didn't have to be attached to a pole through hooks penetrating his skin, and he didn't have to drink the blood of the male elders of the family. 

He didn't have to cut his private parts, or otherwise receive the power of manhood through means one would be imprisoned for in our culture.

He didn't have to get tattoos or get tied down in an anthill.

He didn't have to kill a lion or sleep naked in the snow.

We have lost a lot between the blood drinking and the cake. Comfort is not one of them.

fall

the other day, my husband had for some unknown reason set the alarm clock on 'radio'. it goes off at 7 a.m., and a male voice breaks into my sleep with the news of a father who had killed his wife, their 2 weeks old baby, their 6 and 9 year old daughters and himself during the night. they found the bodies scattered over a large area, so one might think that it took him a while to finnish. then the voice goes on the say that there will be no climate deal in mexico this year.
as soon as i had assembled my brain bits from getting blasted all over the bed covers, i considered the options people have when confronted with such things (by some called 'the world'):
a) crawling back under the covers with a knife to finnish it
b) seeing a doctor for a round of antidepressants
c) writing an article for the newspaper, fooling yourself into thinking 'i did something about it'
d) fastening one's blinkers even harder and continue one's compulsive focus on one's little, safe corner of the world (i.e. the size of a post stamp)
i've tried them all, except the obvious (i'm still here).
i still don't know what to do about it when it hits me.
so i don't read the news. i occasionally express some political passion. i sign petitions in hope of a better world. and at times i manically, obsessively, compulsively, care for the little piece of heaven i know, my little safe post stamp in this world. it's easy. it's beautiful, it's love. it's connecting me to a greater whole that i know is there, beyond the cruelty and greed of this world. the best cure for such a morning is to sit down with a cup of tea and knit. but somewhere, there's a great uneasiness stirring.

a perfect storm?

on monday (dec 7th), 56 newspapers from 45 different countries spoke with one voice through a common editorial. that is a pretty powerful statement. the occasion was, as you probably already know, the opening of the world climate summit in copenhagen that same day.

two weeks ago, the UN had to close its accredential lists due to lack of space. the venue can only house 15 000 people and it is f u l l.
with 5000 journalists from 180 countries, the summit will be one of the biggest international media occasions ever. the developing countries are also in: several hundred journalists and filmmakers have been funded to follow the talks in situ.

still, the 5000 journalists arriving in copenhagen right now, are nothing compared to the bloggers following this event, outnumbering the journalists by the thousands, and enabling a social and emotional mobilizing we've never witnessed before. the uk paper the guardian calls this media coverage - the labours of thosands of organisations and activists - 'a perfect storm'.


the question is: will it be enough?

as the common editorial stated; the next fourteen days will seal history's judgment on this generation. but even before the summit had opened, the verdict was passed; no legally binding agreement will be signed in copenhagen. there's already talk of continued negotiations in 2010. are we witnessing the end of the world as we know it?


it really comes down to a quarrell between rich and poor. the developing countries says 'we won't cut back on our carbon emissions if the developed countries won't take the blame for our situation and cut back more'. the developed countries basically says 'fuck you. we won't cut back if you won't'. we're witnessing little boys with too big pants throwing dirt at each other in an ever shrinking playground. hold on to your hats, people. mind over matter doesn't really apply here. as has been stated over and over; this crisis is about physics, not politics. the laws of physics are not democratic nor open to compromises. will our world leaders remember this as the heat rises?


i watched the rather apocalyptic the age of stupid two nights ago. usually, i get all geared up by watching these kind of films, and try to make my own carbon footprints even smaller. but this film had me all depressed. it actually had me thinking, for the very first time, what does it matter what i do inside my own home, when we have greedy cowards for leaders? when money matters more than life? when i'm surrounded everywhere by advertising telling me to buy more stuff, spend more, need more, crave more? deserve more? because i'm fucking worth it? now who the heck came up with that nasty slogan?!?

i admit to thinking that people are basically stupid. people will always do what 'everyone else does', which is, in effect, what our leaders tells/allows us to do.
rations have worked fine during other times of crisis. how long will it take them to realize it's the only way to go now? there are thousands of people shouting 'ration me now', but instead of listening, world leaders are telling us - in various ways and with various actions - to buy. more. stuff.

i really, really, really wish these guys will get their heads out of their butts in time and act up to the men they're dressed to be.

corner view bergen, norway: september

so far, september has been:
- happy to be back home from our vacation
- equally happy that we did go on vacation
- cuddling our new, oh so sweet kitten
- enjoying an early, moist and warm autumn
- exploring the idea of not eating gluten, milk products and sugar
- and therefore making no sugar/milk/gluten candy and cakes, with success (!)
- enjoying a much needed computer break
- being so behind on my blog reading that i'm not sure where to start, so therefore i don't
- anticipating the national election
- realizing that damn, parliamentarism is difficult
- nevertheless, being very content with the result

how's your september?

more corner views:
jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad,caitlin, joyce, ani, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeannette, outi, ritva, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, dianna, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, april, b, kyndale samantha, karen, kristina, dorit, goldensunfamily, sophie, janet, mcgillicutty, desiree, travelingmama, aimee, sunnymama, amanda, ali, jenell, britta, juanita, pamela, inna, daan, myrtille, cris, ibb, susi, jodi, lily, gillian,
athena, pienduzz, latisha, clairette, kelleyn, iris, demara, mus, ninja, guusje, di, sammi, theresa, cherry b

hilarious, but scary

in these health hysteria times...
i came across this in the news a couple of days ago:

the us newspaper investor's business daily has declared that the world renowned theoretical physicist stephen hawking, who suffers from ALS, would be dead if he was british and under british health care system.
they kind of missed the fact that he is british - and still very much alive.

national constitution day/three things

1: local celebration

2: city celebrations

the 17th of may is the day when all norwegians get quite full of their norwegianness. i've never been able to get that feeling - at least not by these celebratory means. but yesterday was different, as...

3: NORWAY WON THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST!!
ok, i haven't really been able to get into that thing either, and haven't watched the esc since i was a kid. but now i have kids myself, and whaddayaknow. i was happy to find out that it was still as tacky as it used to be, that the music was still really awful (but let's not forget that this is where abba had their breakthrough with their winner song waterloo), and a bit sad to see the pompousness had lessened. most of all, winning the contest with a performance involving a fiddle and hallingkast (traditional norwegian dancing) the night before the 17th, actually sparked some national pride even in me. so today i was able to sing along with a bulging heart; yes, we do love this country...

if you want to see some really beautiful bunads (national costumes), go here, here, here, here and here.

cross-cultural conversation

my post on things i've observed in blogland resulted in an ongoing email conversation with iris over at creative endeavours in a busy life (i like the way we say 'over at' - it's like a global neighbourhood). the subject is mothering in norway versus the u.s.
or, taken further, women's rights. she's put a post up based on this conversation - go read it here.
i spent several years at the university developing my interest and abilities in observing. inevitably, observing and questioning other's ways and habits makes me learn something new about my own ways and habits, whether on a cultural level or a more personal one. and i often find that what i'm left with, is a question of values; what do i, and we, as a culture, want from life and how do we get it.
i don't think neither me nor iris have concluded on anything yet - it's only observations.

thanks for the opportunity to observe a bit more of what's behind the blog screen, iris!

{observing self in mirror}

6 more things i've learned about american bloggers

continuing my pseudo anthropological observations:

1. many of them are stay at home mums (sahm), even when the kids start preschool/kindergarten. that's not common here.

2. many of the sahm's are homeschoolers. that's really not common here.

3. many of the homeschooling sahm's put a button on their blog; a portrait of darwin, words 'teach evolution'. it took me a long time to figure that one out. when i did, the ground shook beneath my feet.

4. they must keep it very warm inside their houses. i can se loads of snow outside, but kids in tee's and bare feet inside. here, we wear wool indoors in the winter.

5. their childrens birthday parties are all 'themed'.

6. i was going to write 'they're all white'. but i think i might have found one or two bloggers to prove me wrong.

mission: impossible

i remember using a bathroom at a radical youth's community house in oslo back in the late 80's. i was there to participate in a large demonstration facilitated by the community. the walls of that bathroom had writings all over; basically, a never ending list of what corporation/country/brand/organisation/political party etc etc to boycott. i remember thinking; how silly. no matter if you boycott all of these, there will still be hundreds (thousands!) of unethical corporations etc out there, that you don't even know you're supporting.
*

whether we see ourselves as saving the earth, saving humanity (the same thing from two different angles), or just living an interconnected and meaningful life, i do believe that the obstacles in our culture are too many for most of us to be able to live out our ideals 100%. whether we choose to do a little here and a little there, or pick a couple of subjects that we dedicate ourselves fully to, most of us will never be able to live completely sustainably or ethically. i believe in doing our best, but i also believe in not preaching. the (so far) self imposed tasks and responsability before us might seem overwhelming. i've been practicing 'a little bit here and there' until recently, when i decided to be more systematic about it. but i started out with one subject that i dedicated myself fullheartedly to: food.

as a true child of the 80's neo hippie/post punk/goth/general freak sub culture of my town, my interest in counter-culturalism had been spurted from an early age and i, along with most of my friends, became a vegetarian. a lot of unguided experimenting, including over eating on daal (i'll never eat yellow lentils again) proceeded. i had a go on macrobiotics (but never could stand the umeboshi, nor the seaweed, and what's left then? :)), and finally got some good cooking lessons living in a yoga ashram in copenhagen. i was a vegetarian for 7 years.

when i got pregnant, i already had decided to go with my food urges if it included meat. it did. chicken, big time. i reevaluated my reasons for being a vegetarian, and i understood that the whole thing had come about as a product of two things: the subculture that formed my teens and early 20's, and my mother's bad cooking. my experience with meat was that it was a highly yucky, unchewable substance that kept growing in my mouth. my reencounter with meat was chicken only, until i met my future mother in law (a former cook) and tasted her food. (i still prefer chicken, though).

i am aware of the grain vs meat debate, and that, along with health matters, is why i think we should only eat meat (not including fish here) about twice a week. but i don't think it's unethical to eat animals, which seemed to be the main reason for my fellow vegetarian friends to stay vegetarian.

all my arguments back and forth in this whole reevaluation made me conclude with one thing: i didn't need to eat vegetaric; i needed to eat organic. but not for health reasons, which seemed to be the main reason why people ate organic back then; it was for ethical reasons. non organic food was non sustainable. it didn't fit in with my values or my spiritual views of life, man and earth.
so, when my son was born, i initiated our town's first organic foods home delivery service, and stayed an organic chica for years. even though in recent years my economy as well as my energy level has started to go in unpredictable directions, i've tried to stay true to my ideal - sometimes more, sometimes less, but never 100%.

but even if we are able to keep our basic diet organic, our family would never be able to do completely without non organic goods. we would never afford to build a sustainable house. we wouldn't be able to buy only organic clothes, food, furniture, detergents, or what about a bathtub? sink? textbooks? and even if we've managed without a car until 2 years ago, we wouldn't be able to do without one where we live now.

the point i'm trying to make is that even the best of the 'sustainable living' types out there aren't able to avoid non sustainable goods completely. a person can make a big fuzz about the chocolate industry; but what about the cotton they're wearing? and then one can scream and shout about the cotton industry; but what about the make up they're wearing? the hair products? the curtains, the towels, the coffe? the workplace? the music we buy? the plates that we eat from? our computers?

i'm happy that i found one green interest and let it grow from there. i'm also happy with the 'a little here and a little there' approach that i've had, and now i'm happy to pursue my green goals even further. i'm not happy when people raise their eyebrows at others not living up to their standards, mainly because a) it's really the most inefficient way to make the world a greener place, and b) you could easily point your finger back at them. it's just scribbles on a bathroom wall.

green: the art of dependence

after a long and uncomfortable autumn and winter, with no energy or interest in much, i'm finally feeling like i'm resurfacing. i've got both the time and energy to get things done, and to pursue my ever present domestic goals further: decreasing clutter; decreasing costs; becoming increasingly better at living sustainably. luckily, getting better at one of those things often means getting better at the others.
a great inspiration in this is bjørk's blog, spiderwebmama. she is always looking for new ways to becoming greener, and that inspires me. she admits to the difficulty of being green, but that doesn't stop her from trying out new stuff.

the original subtitle of my own blog was 'a creative outlook on the art of dependence'. it was inspired by the norwegian "declaration of dependence", put together by 52 organizations and handed over to the prime minister at the time:
on june 7th 2005, norway celebrated its 100 year anniversary for its independence from sweden, which it had been in a forced union with for 91 years. during the celebration, while the people's main focus was on independence, the golden calf of our time along with individualism, representatives from the 52 organizations signed the newly written declaration of dependence. it was a solemn occation, with speeches and the presence of many politicians, including the prime minister.
the starting-point of the declaration was questions like: how does todays strong focus on individualism affect our different communities; our family lives, at school, with friends, in our work lives, in our organizations? how does it affect the way we perceive society? how does it affect our global consciousness? it concludes with the fact that we are more dependant than ever - both as individuals and as a nation.

the 7 points of the declaration are (i'm sorry for the sometimes bad translation):

we are dependant on mother earth
we all need a living earth. our fragile planet depends on each and one of us reflecting on our actions, so that the earth will stay fertile and in balance.

we are dependant on community
we all need to be a part of a whole, to belong in a multifarious society built on solidarity and community. the safety of the individual depends on an existing community where many take responsibility, and where there is trust and mutuality.

we are dependant on safety
we all need a safe haven. a safe and good home, food on the table, and help when we are ill.

we are dependant on recognition
we are all equally valuable. we all need to be respected as we are. we need to give and take through meaningful tasks that challenges and developes the intellectual, artistic, ethic and spiritual abilities latent in every man.

we are dependant on protection
we all need protection against encroachment. there are rules to protect people's dignity in peace and war. we all depend on these rules to be followed.

we are dependant on expression
we all need to express ourselves. through unfolding, play and speech we can keep our curiosity, our wonder, and develop our understanding and empathy. nature, culture, religion and filosophy contribute to the opening of our senses and to put our lives in a greater context.

we are dependant on time
we all need peace, quiet and reflection, to rest and to be able to make the best decisions for ourselves and society. we need time to be able to give care and loving attention.

we depend on each other and we all need love, care and values that provides us and society with directions. this will give us hope in these challenging times, and confidence in our ability to achieve our goals.
*********
(in the words of bilbo; there and here again. full circle. i hope you understand what i mean.)

my understanding of man's dependency on mother earth is great. my understanding of man's dependancy on man is less great, but in progress. i thought my blog was to be about green creativity; recycling stuff into art and craft, and thoughts on the interconnectedness of humans and the planet. i wasn't able to be consistent to that, and, as a mirroring of myself and my life, the blog went in all directions. and so it probably will continue to do. nevertheless, i'm going to try to blog about sustainable solutions to domestic doings as well. first post tomorrow: family cloth!!

(link til 07-06-05 om avhengighetserklæringen.
også her.)

incompetent school teachers - help needed

Visty needs some help addressing her kid's stupid, stupid teachers. be a mate, and help her out, if you can.

consuming kids

i could write a long list of complaints against the politics in my country. however, i have to admit, that whenever something makes me compare norway to other countries, i can't help but take a deep sigh of relief. like i did yesterday, after watching the american documentary Consuming Kids; The Commercialization of Childhood. (i recommend the full film as this trailer is rather superficial, and comes out a bit like it's just meant to scare you).

it looks into how kids are targeted at from commercial forces from birth onwards; product placement; brand licensing; advergames (!); marketing in school; hotels, airlines and even car companies marketing to kids. as one guy says; "what we have is the rise of 360 degree immersive marketing, where they try to get around the child at every aspect, every avenue". and further, "their goal is to insinuate their brand into the fabric of children's lives". and all for this; to turn them into life long consumers.

i don't need to hear about the blinking tests, the video recorded shopping, the slumber parties with commercial agents observing the kids, etc etc. i don't need the 'shocking facts' to be shocked. the fact that marketing towards children is allowed, however subtle or plain, is shocking enough in itself.
marketing towards children is stealing minds, and inevitably, souls.

what was said towards the end of the film, was that whenever critics raised their voices at marketing towards children, 'people' (i.e. the marketing industry) started yelling about the first amendment of the american constitution; freedom of speech.
since when did freedom of speech exempt anyone from morality?
in norway, we also have a constitution that includes freedom of speech. but we also have laws that prohibit actions that are considered bad in our culture. like discrimination based on race, gender or religion. or marketing towards children.
it is a matter of us, as adults, protecting a group of the population which is considered unable to protect themselves. it is a matter of common sense.
how hard can it be?

the norwegian santa; a pagan trickster

in norway, we have two predominant yule characters: santa and the nisse (anyone expecting jesus? sorry!), or rather, the merging of the two into the julenisse. santa claus is, as we know, the american commercialisation of saint nikolaus; the greek bishop who helped the poor in 4th century anatolia (present day turkey). he is said to have passed out gifts to poor children from a big sack around christmas time (which by the way is rather unlikely, as jesus' birth date was probably not yet set in the 4th century. but he might have passed out gifts around solstice). add to this the british father christmas, the germanic pagan god odin, american popular culture, et voilá - modern day santa says hi.

this guy also hit the coast of norway sometime in the early 19th century. but here, he merged with the then predominating yule figure; the creature known today as the nisse. (the name nisse is not the original one; it is a danish derivation of nikolaus, which became niels, which then became nisse). the julenisse was born, who is basically the same as the american santa except for the pagan remnants in the name.

the traditional pagan nisse is about the size of a child, bearded, dressed in knee long grey or brown wool pants and a red pointed hat. he is old but strong as a horse, and a bit ill tempered.

{nisse stealing meat from the store-house}

but the nisse was not a creature specifically linked to yule in the old norse society. he (he was always a he) was a vette, a kind of nature spirit that lived in the out-houses, stables, byres and store-houses at a farm. he guarded the farm, the animals, the houses, and the people living there. he was known as the haugbonde/haugkall (the farmer/man living in the hill), gardvord (the protector of the farm), tomtegubbe (man living on the farmland (the swedish equivalent of the norwegian nisse is called tomte)), godbonde (good farmer), rudkall (the man who cleared the farmland) and more. he helped out with the animals, he protected, but he was also a trickster who could become in a very bad mood if he was not tended to. he needed his food, his milk, and his bed, or else he would make animals sick or make other tragedies hit the farm. come yule, he demanded pudding and ale. norwegian children still places a dish of pudding outside the house or, if living at a farm, in the byre/stable to please the nisse at yuletide (let me get back to the rather irritating and persisting habit of writing yule instead of christmas in a later post). he was, in fact, a very attended kind of house god and a remnant of an older ancestor cult.

this is just an example among many of how strange and funny ways culture evolves in creative, unexpected and - for the most part - unconscious (sometimes even braindead) ways. humans equals culture equals an entity taken on a life on its own. the anatolian bishop + pagan house god = santa is a pretty good one.

a few oddities:
during the national romantic era, the nisse became a strong national symbol for norwegians. in fact, he became so strong, that during the german occupation in world war II, his red hat was banned. yule cards portraying the nisses was already widely popular, and the creative norwegian artists solved the problem in different ways - and often as a silent protest. the hat was omitted:

given a different colour:

or, the opposite, made longer. for this, the artist was imprisoned for two years. it says not only 'good yule', but 'good norwegian yule'.

but the nisse had already a history as a figure of protest. in the 1920's, when alcohol was forbidden, the nisse was made into a smuggler, as this yule card shows. how cute is that? :)

little red riding hood unveiled

little red riding hood is a widespread and much loved fairytale, told to children today the way the brothers grimm wrote it in 1812. but do you know the truth about this little girl?

neither did i, until a few years back. sit back and enjoy.

once upon a time, there was a woman who had baked some bread. she told her daughter, a young girl, to go to her grandmother with a warm bread and a bottle of milk. the girl left. at a crossroad, she met the wolf, who asked her where she was going. 'i'm going to my grandmother with a warm bread and a bottle of milk'. 'which road will you take? this road, or that road?' asked the wolf. 'i will take this road', the girl answered. 'good, then i will take that one'.

the wolf gets to the grandmother first, kills her, puts some of her flesh in the pantry and a bottle of her blood on a shelf.

enters the girl.

the wolf asks her to eat the flesh and drink the wine (blood), which she does, unknowingly that she cannibalises her own grandmother.

the wolf then asks the girl to undress and get into bed with him. when she asks where to put her clothes, which is mentioned one by one item, she is told to throw them into the fire because she won't be needing them anymore.

well into bed, the girl questions grandma's unusual looks; hairy, broad shouldered. she asks why he has such a big mouth, and he gives the answer we all know; 'to better be able to eat you'.

these elements were more or less standard in the oral versions of this story, as it was told in france and italy up until 1697, when it was written down for the first time by charles perrault. no red hood, no hunter. the hood was added by perrault, the hunter by the brothers grimm. the ending wasn't always the same, though: in some versions, the wolf eats the girl and that's that. end of story. in others, the girl escapes through the woods chased by the wolf, slipping through the door of her own house right before the wolf's long nose.

there has been several attempts of interpretating this story, and they differ widely. some are: puberty ritual, the young girl literally taking up womanhood by cannibalising her grandmother; a warning against wolves (which in some oral versions were a werewolf); a warning against prostitution, as a red cloak was a sign of prostitution in 17th century france. this can not have been the original meaning, though, as the red hood was added in - yes, the 17th century.

even though the tale and it's meaning has varied with the times and places it has been told in, one thing seems to be common ground: the sexual nature of the encounter between the girl and the wolf. and this was also perrault's focus, who turned the story into a story about moral. the full title of his book is even Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals (better known as Tales of Mother Goose). in his version red riding hood was an attractive, well-bred young lady, not an innocent and sweet little girl. here's what he added to the ending:

From this story one learns that children, especially young lasses, pretty, courteous and well-bred, do very wrong to listen to strangers, And it is not an unheard thing if the Wolf is thereby provided with his dinner. I say Wolf, for all wolves are not of the same sort; there is one kind with an amenable disposition — neither noisy, nor hateful, nor angry, but tame, obliging and gentle, following the young maids in the streets, even into their homes. Alas! Who does not know that these gentle wolves are of all such creatures the most dangerous!

if we look past the moralising aspect of perrault's version, we are left with a story of awakening sexuality. when we also know that in present day france, the old parable for loosing one's virginity is 'being taken by the wolf', there's really not much doubt, is there?

so. have another look at the picture above again, and keep in mind, the next time you tell your children this fairytale, that someone quite fitting named the story 'the striptease of little red riding hood'. ;)

the giving

every year, volounteers in my city drive several busloads of yulegifts to needy people in romania. it is called 'the yule gift initiative' and goes like this:

you, and everybody else in your family, gathers and wrappes up a gift for someone the same age, sex and size as yourself. clothes, sweets, toys, whatever, just keeping in mind that the receiver is poor, poor, poor. there's a rule to it that i like: don't buy anything, use what you have and can share. although i did buy new toothbrushes and soaps...

we found clothes and several pairs of good shoes, we packed ginger bread hearts and raided our drawing supplies - 4 stacks of crayons, 10 in each, and we had only taken the new or almost new ones... Toothbrush and paste, soap, and a greeting.

just before we left the house to drop the packages off, a friend came by and named one of the demons that are unevitable hidden in projects like these.

'you realize that this only leads to the men spending less money on gifts and more on booze, don't you?'

he has a girlfriend in moldova, which happens to be just the region these gifts are going to.
even though he might be right, please, just for once, let me be that naive, spoiled, selfrighteous westener that i usually despise, and not think about lacking infrastructures, corruption, moral decay and hundreds of other demons. no more demons. let's just give, now.

and hope for a single mom with two kids.

the story of stuff

i am so glad that there are people willing to say a whole lot about what they believe in, and i am so happy when i find someone expressing my beliefs and values as well. no matter how simplistic, this woman sums it up pretty well (thank you bjørk, for leading me to this video)
please watch: the story of stuff

five things i have learned about american bloggers

since my attention was drawn to 'foreign bloggers' (well, basically americans) about 6 months ago, i've come to learn some interesting things about them.

1. they knit weird.
i mean, relly weird. i've only seen south americans knit that way before. i've always thought they did it that way because they'd never seen 'the other way' to knit, poor things. (yes, it is possible to know this little about knitting styles). but then i asked a californian friend of mine (who has a norwegian mother) to help me translate a pattern from english to norwegian. 'i don't understand american patterns', she said, 'my mother taught me to knit. and besides, americans knit in a funny way'. and so i realised. poor thiiiings! it...looks...so...sloooow....
but then i youtube'd knitting styles, and hey, take a look! what the heck is that!?!

i also found the american and the norwegian (or 'continental', it seems) styles both in one video. which...do...you...think...looks...faster...?

2. they are fascinated with the past
or, the aesthetics of the past.
but not the far past, more like the 'grandma past'. 2, 3 generations back. which is interesting to me, because i tend to skip that, and jump all the way back to - well, a couple of thousand years, or more. (don't be fooled by the viking talk. we all know that the viking era was a mere fart in the wind. but it left big footprints. how's that - a fart with feet!). pre-historic era rocks. not that i know that much about it, i just draw a lot of inspiration from it. it's where i feel my roots stretching; from the land and the bones resting in it. which brings me back to north america, because one of the things that i have always wondered about is how americans (yes, i mean the stereotypical w.a.s.p. here, just for the record, and yes, i know there's more to america than that, but let's stick with this idea that i've had since childhood) perceive their roots. i used to call america a people/country with no history, and really wonder how that must have felt. i guess it's not that simple.

3. they love IKEA.
i'm not sure if this is an accurate comparison, considering the fact that i've only been to the states once and inside a walmart once, but maybe - maybe - you could say that ikea is the walmart of furniture. it is to scandinavians a bit what walmart is to americans; they are cheap, and they've got just about everything. it's funny to see ikea design appreciated the way some american bloggers do. it makes me look differently at my incredible cheap bed linens.

4. they romanticise europe.
well, some do. some are dismayed by their own culture, and dream of a more 'natural' life in europe.
go on.
keep dreaming.

5. they know shabby chic with an edge.
and that's why the international blogosphere won me over.
i really don't know what to call it, or if it is a 'style' of its own (but it certainly goes around), but it is shabby/reused/repurposed/old kind of in a way, and it is NOT all laces, romantic tiny flowers and shabby white painted wood. it's edgy. cool and ugly in a beautiful and funky way.

those are my observations so far. i just might be back with more.

ps; ethics, anyone?

a pair of knitted children's trousers from the 17th century.

it is so mended and patched up there's hardly anything left of the original knitwork. it stands in painfully sharp contrast to our consumerist society. what became of our ethics?