In Scandinavia most days are rather predictable. I mean weatherwise the air is cool and the skies at times give respite and offer a glimpse of what could be had this corner of the world if it just layed a little more to the south. So this morning wasn’t anymore spectacular than the others, boring, dull and grey aren’t no where near the descriptors need to classify the ordinary here. I remember being rambunctious, full of energy and relatively untamed. I was ambitious and wanted so many things and then everything came to a halt, everything slowed down to a grinding and screeching stop: I found my self living the Nordic way. Not that in Scandinavia people aren’t ambitious and part of the rat pack the prevails in the rat race in most urbane cities of the world. By far, we have some of the most ambitious people here which are an exemplary model of what other countries would be had they the same weather that we have here. It’s just that it all depends were you live in Scandinavia. Granted, I could move and do something about my situation specially my ailments but I think I am getting ahead of myself. Place is what I was dissecting and it has already been described so I won’t offer any new quotes regards it because Greta Garbo has said it succinctly: there’s nothing else to do here than to watch the grass grow. It isn’t all that harmful in reality, if you are a Buddhist or have as a goal in life to achieve absolute peacefulness. But westerners aren’t built for stillness, we need to move and move fast, like a desperate gerbil with counted hours. But I have overcome my need to always be on the chase. It just got to me you know? Slowdown is the new mantra here. I don’t particularly like it but surrendering to the milieu is the only thing that brings peace of mind here. It isn’t easy to let go of the dreams and ambitions because the rest of your surroundings demand that you smell the roses and repeatedly reminds you to accept the inevitable. The Nordic way is to allow for things to take time. Somehow this people love to wait. Like I said, it ain’t harmful, for most people eitherhow’s. Things tend to crash if they go too fast and I crashed.
Being hyperactive in Scandinavia isn’t healthy. Not that the rest of Scandinavia doesn’t have its share of psychological ailments for being inert and waiting for Godot. But there are a few minute differences, those on the inert side tend to suffer more because they have given up and conformed to the status quo presented by the admittance of reality as it appears to them whilst hyperactivism in Scandinavia leads to sentiments of guilt quite natural to protestant cultures.
So lets face it, I surrendered to the slow ticking of the clock and I know life isn’t going to become anymore exciting for the latter because even if I had chosen to continue to persistently pursue my own rat race I still wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else faster, that’s just the logic of it. At least this way I undermine the persistent sense of guilt and just let it be.