JENNY STRÖMSTEDT
We said that the Danish couple lived the perfect life
JENNY STRÖMSTEDT Published Apr 27, 2019 at 06:00
Denmark's richest man in sorrow after the terrorist attacks
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Anne Holch Povlsen and Anders Hoch Povlsen in connection with Crown Prince Frederiks 50-YEAR CELEBRATIONPhoto: OLUFSON JONAS / AP TT NEWS OFFICE
Terrorist attacks such as Easter's horrific bombing in Sri Lanka occurred 7,770 kilometers from where I live. According to the news logic, the feeling remains for a shorter period of time the further away from one's own reality the event takes place.
This is a chronicle. Analysis and standpoints are the writer's.
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JENNY STRÖMSTEDT
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Jenny Strömstedt
In Sri lanka, a country with otherwise low crime, nothing is over for a long time and perhaps never. Beloved fellows will not return how unreasonable the end is. The pointless happened.
But the doctrine of Sri Lanka also does not leave me, despite ice weather, magnolia blooms and nearer crises such as furious forest fires and graying troubadours that drive steeply. It has only been two years since the terrorist attack on Drottninggatan, perhaps that is why, or so, the incomprehensible death is more difficult to handle when their own remaining time becomes clearer day by day. There were also so many children who were murdered and the volcano swells in the mother's body. I look at my own three, or the traces of those who are about to conquer a world full of dangers but themselves do not see a single. It is their only way, but why do I suddenly see a threat over everything, I who have also been a proud fatalist and always succeeded in narrowing the darkness. "The fun one takes out in advance and the bad one takes when it comes". It is like being six years and just discovering that space has no end and that mom and dad are not forever. Everything is unpredictable.
Perhaps it is the terror message of the terror that clings to the soul: no one is ever safe.
Last fall I traveled to Scotland to an old farm that a Danish couple bought and equipped for guest houses. I had ripped out an ad in a travel magazine a long time ago, attracted by the silence and the nature walks, and saved the wrinkled note with the dream that one day take me there. The place was everything I imagined.
Which shangri-la, we said. The couple who created this must live the perfect life
In the hillside beyond the white little stone house, behind the greenhouse's organic crops, the highlands spread out in soft heights with green grass, heather and mountain lakes that sparkled through the centuries. Inside the small house, the rooms were simply decorated in a mix of Danish design and inspiration from the Orkney Islands, all in natural materials, woody or painted in pale pastels. Even the lunch sandwiches were wrapped in thick butter paper with tarred cords around. Everything was beautiful, and the constantly connected contemporary people were resting in a recognizable persistence that so many people groped for. The safety of the scenes as a business concept.
In the evening we sat outdoors around the fireplace, which sent light bulbs up to the starry sky and talked to the other guests. Which shangri-la, we said. The couple who created this, those whose life projects are to recreate the highlands' original ecosystem, must live the perfect life. He is certainly a billionaire, someone said, and then we took a sip of the local whiskey.
On Easter day, Danish entrepreneur Anders Holch Povlsen and his wife Anne Holch Povlsen were at the hotel Shangri-la in Colombo together with their four children. Three of them died in the attack.
There is nothing perfect. There is nothing permanent. No one is protected. The random can always determine which path will be yours. Of course, those directly affected carry the heaviest burden, the unbearable life sock. But worry, where should I stop it? In the hands of politicians? With a god I do not believe in or is it just to affirm the psychic displacement mechanisms but what happens to all other disasters we have to watch for the future, climate change for example? In any case, I have tattooed a bear on the wet if I had to be identified after a blast.
Ali Smith, one of Britain's leading authors, released in 2007 with Best Seller Girl meets Boy. The book is about two sisters who grow up in a small Scottish town not far from Povlsen's farms. The house has their eccentric grandparents donated to them after they have moved to Europe's mainland. The book is about so much, but a memorable quote from the grandparents has remained and is a pragmatic advice for the grandchildren, and perhaps more:
"You must learn to feel hope of the kind that passes things into history."
NOTICES:
CLIFF BARNES
Cliff Barnes in Dallas is dead, or he lives in our memories even if actor Ken Kercheval died. Dallas was broadcast on Friday on Friday, premiere on January 30, 1981. Only the signature evokes a happy Friday chime even though the Barnes figure only gave stomach pain and Sue Ellen was an alcoholic. Dad and mum dropped into the TV armchairs after work week. A glass for them, a half-pack of ice cream straight out of the half package to the kids and one hour of insane intrigue from the other side of the earth. Friday morning, it is now called. Thanks Cliff!
THE CLIMATE CRISIS
160 million children live in areas that risk drought due to climate change, half a million children live in places that may be flood-affected. As you know, climate change is about more than our convenience. Read Expressen's articles on how climate change affects the children's future, and turn on the TV on May 1 for the world's most important night in TV4.
EASTER LEAVE
The stupid thing about being free over Easter is that you get a taste for it. The good thing is that there is something to work for. It's soon summer.
You seem to be in fine spirits. Must be from all that candy.
