<< It’s all about attitudes

A very funny consequence of moving to a different country is that you’re capable of observing the little attitudes that make your new home in ways that the locals no longer seem able to perceive. 

Norwegian behavior is filled with actions that speak tons of their home country, values and traditions. And it seems overall that some of those values reach outwards to the overall Scandinavian region. 

Full disclaimer: Don’t get me wrong tough, I speak of these attitudes very fondly and with a fair dose of love. But I also have to come out clean and confess that often and discreetly I pay lots of attention to the people around me.

One particular attitude is this god given right to go just about anywhere within our countries; private property exists, but we seldom have any interest in having to say anything about where it starts and it ends. This in itself sounds almost as a contradiction, but it doesn’t mean that private property doesn’t exist, just that everyone knows and respects these boundaries. 

In her book Sommerboken, Tove Jansson (known worldwide for her Moomin family) gives us a very clear example of this overall scandinavian attitude. A chapter on the book titled “Naboen” (I have the norwegian version/”The neighbor”) has the following exchange between the grandmother and her child (main characters of the book) as they come about a plate in black letters delimiting a property:

Vi går i land, sa farmoren, hun var meget sint. Sophia så redd ut. Det gjør en stor forskjell, forklarte farmoren. Ingen mennesker med god oppdragelse går i land på en annens øy når den er tom. Men når folk setter opp en plakat, så gjør man det fordi det er en utfordring.

We go into the land, said the grandmother, she was very angry. Sophia looked a bit scared. It makes a big difference, clarified the grandmother. No person with good education goes into someone else’s island when it’s empty. But when people set up that type of plate, then you have to go in because it is a challenge.

As funny as this exchange sounds. I have absolutely no problem imagining friends and members of my family doing exactly just that. In fact the way they react to this passage is with absolute understanding of the situation and completely justify it.

It’s just so into them to do so that they cannot conceive any other different way around it. And as I write this entry with a smile upon my face, I wouldn’t have it any other way myself either. 

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