Winter
Winter is arriving quickly — days are shorter and most people are waiting for the snow to go skiing — almost everybody except me! I wonder sometimes if I can be a real Norwegian, those whose reputation is to go out skiing and jogging in a winter landscape in shorts …
Perhaps what Anna Morrow Lindbergh wrote might be appropriate: "Perhaps I am a bear, or some hibernating animal underneath, for the instinct to be half asleep all winter is so strong in me."
I have friends who went off on holidays to the Antarctic to see the beauty of the icebergs, the snow, the penguins, the whales and all the rest. Before they left they kindly asked if I wanted to join them … something I was quick to politely decline. I’m sure it is a wonderful experience and worth trying for those looking for adventure, but …
Clich?s about one’s "national reputation" do not apply to everybody. Last January I was part of a group of fifteen journalists who went to Poland. It was a nice but a very, very cold experience — the one
looking like a teddy bear wrapped in thick layers of clothing was me…
One of my colleagues is always feeling hot and one of our most frequent "territorial disputes" concerns the window -should it be open or shut. She would like to have some air, whereas I want it closed.
Luckily, I tend to adopt a conciliatory attitude to "neighbours" who accept to live in a diversified society …
One day one of my friends came to me all smiling and laughing: "Now I know why you are always feeling cold - ’the stork dropped you off in the wrong place’." She had been watching a cartoon on TV, and immediately she had made the "connection".
There is always a plausible explication to every problem … May I just quote Albert Camus: "In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."
We here at DIVA wish you all a wonderful holiday season.
Marit
