I recalled, in answering a long email to Alexandra (who, without knowing me, wrote in response to this whole web site) — I recalled a story from one time when I was traveling in Norway, I guess in 1988. I had been visiting with Janine, a former student from Boulder, outside of Oslo, and was heading by train from there to Stavanger, Norway, on the west coast to visit with Steve and Anna. Steve was an old friend from the School of Mines who had expatriated to Norway to work in the oil business there. Anyway, I was riding on the train, and by the time it reached Kristiansand on the south coast, the car I was in was empty. An old man got on and seated himself a number of rows ahead of me. We had been riding for about an hour in this otherwise empty car. Suddenly, he half-turned and said direct to me, in English, Come, we must not be animals, we must speak. I was a bit blown away momentarily, but recovered and moved up to sit with him. We shared stories for the next hours to Stavangar. He was returning to his home on a small island north of Stavanger in the west fjords. He had been hospitalized for some time, and although he did not say this, I think he was going home to die. He told stories of the brutal Nazi occupation of the town where he lived, and of the rather disingenuous German tourists that have subsequently returned to Norway in the past few years. He also told mysterious stories of a rune-stone ring behind his house, and how once, in a vicious storm (the same intense weather that sweeps across IceLand!) he had woken up in the middle of the night and was compelled to get up , Light a candle and walk out to stand in the center of the stone ring where he remained dry and the candle lit despite the raging storm all about… Speaking. Speaking of Mercy?
The Quality of Mercy is not strain’d, It droppeth as the gentle rain from Heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest, It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: “Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his own crown. It is enthroned in the hearts of Kings, It is an attribute of God Himself”. — William Shakespeare
Uh. Not apropos, right? Stumbled on it. Kind of oppressive for the Bard. (Used in the promotion of that old High-Handed and oppressive Christianity.) Maybe I can find something better later. Just finished developing film from as far back as August. Hope to get some new illustrations up in the travelog. I was thinking I should make an index of photographs for folks to reference, so as not to have to plug through the mass of text to find things … But, gees, there are so many things to do.