Today he would have been 60 years old – my greatest Swedish teenage idol, Ted Gärdestad. 15 years old he wrote his first great hit and then he became a huge teenage idol in Sweden. Producers for his first album – Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson from ABBA.
He decided to end his life when he was only 41.
Ted, you will live for ever in our hearts.
Marie Ledin, managing director of the Polar Music Prize, says: ”Max Martin and Cecilia Bartoli have both contributed an incredible amount to music in their respective fields. They embody what the Prize represents; excellence in the world of music.”
Sometimes…(despite everything…) I am very proud of my country, Sweden, and when it comes to music there might be a reason for it.
It does not come natural to Swedish people to be proud of their country – we always think of the shortcomings and the mistakes, and ”this could have been done in a better way”. But with music – I think we should be happy about our contributions to the world. Only a few names…Jenny Lind, Birgit Nilsson, Roxette, ABBA, Ace of Base, Avicii, Max Martin…
Congratulations to Max Martin, the great hit- maker, for being awarded the Polar Music Prize!
I have been helping an old friend moving to a home for elderly and disabled people. Yesterday I helped her packing up the last things and putting everything into place. We went through all her paintings as well, to see how many she could use on the new walls and where to put them up. And the rest…I do not know…
She has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. Once she was so smart, sharp tounge and vivid mind and memory. She was even a candidate for a TV prize contest. These last three years…she has been losing everything…and now she can no longer manage on her own. She was also a famous dog breeder for 30 years and won international as well as national fame. Her last dog she could no longer take enough care of, so two weeks ago we went together to the veterinary to put him to sleep. Tough on her and tough on me.
This is so sad, the whole situation. So many people suffer from this disastrous disease. And my old friend has no family, no children – only a half brother. And they have not got along the last 20 years.
She has nobody – but me. Luckily, the last two years she has found a good friend in a new neighbour coming over with some food and cookies – and sometimes some company. I am so glad she is there, as I live 60 kilometres away and cannot visit every day.
When I came up the stairs, she met me with a weak smile – ”I don’t like it here, they are all numb and dumb…cannot speak or understand what I’m saying”. She moved in two weeks ago, after we had been working hard to get her this apartment as she was so alone and needed company in order to eat properly and function socially. She had help four times a day and got food and cleaning as well.
”They are not kind to me here”, she says. ”I want to move.”
We have known each other for 40 years. Now I am searching for my old friend behind those gentle eyes…but I’m afraid she might no longer be there.
I’m back home again…from another journey to another country; meeting its nature, architechture and people. I feel I grow with every meeting and every opportunity I get to learn something new. On thinking back, all my life has been dedicated to learning – and sometimes teaching…
Travelling offers a great way to understand other people and other cultures, that we all know. But, do you often reflect on the ”getting to know yourself” more? Do you prepare your journey thoroughly and do you write down what you see, who you meet and what you learn from them? Maybe you are like me: Always preparing everything, sometimes in detail, and then you do not always keep a diary when reality comes along? Does the new knowledge just stay there without you documenting it?
We are all travellers, and we all travel in our own way. I used to be a writer, now I have become more of a memory photographer. Maybe a futile search for the precious moments to stay…a bit longer.
The abilty to reflect and learn is a great gift.
In fact, it is essential.
Leaving for Iceland for some days – only near Reykjavik this time. We will be spending some bathing time with friends. I just realized it is 10 years since our last visit. Hopefully this will mean some good times.
Wish you all a great weekend!
I hope the world will see a better year, 2016, with peace and love in heart and mind. And I hope for a joyous, Happy New Year to you and yours!
My last post this year, is from my walk in the forest today. Contemplating 2015 and what will come with the new year. The sun spilled its glory from an almost clear sky – so – what better to do than spending the whole New Year’s Eve outdoors, hiking?
Freezing cold from the start…
…with the sun trying to reach over the tree tops.
Succeeding now and then – here from the south.
We had not walked here since the last great gale, and several times the path was totally covered in fallen trees.
The untouched parts were shimmering in the low, golden sun.
Some parts remained white and slippery, and my boys had to walk slowly not to fall into the mud.
Some of my favourite ice – in Sweden we call it håris (hair ice) – and if you look closely, you will understand why. (The header picture)
Heading home again, the sun setting and the real cold returning.
2016, we do not know what lies ahead of us, we can only hope, and work each one of us to make a better world for ourselves and for our fellow passengers on this planet.
The road may be uneven, slippery, narrow, filled with obstacles…but I want to believe there is a light shining us through. Safe travels!
Soon the winter solstice will be here. Much longed for, maybe more than ever this year. No snow – except for one single, great day – and many dark and drizzly days.
Here a series from one of the better days, this week in fact. Notice the play of warm and cold this time of the year. Warm colours if you turn in the direction of the thin rays of the sun – and the cold colours or darkness if you turn towards the sun itself.
One of my favourite spots in ”my” forest, is the passage between two of the grass meadows to the west. Here, Mille used to stand waiting for me by the big oak tree.
The other spot is on my way back from the open landscape to the forest path. The majestic beech trees all aglow with the last rays of the low sun. 2.30 pm.
My thoughts today are in Paris. Tomorrow is the last day of the Climate meeting, and an agreement MUST come. If there is no agreement signed – the Earth and mankind are as good as dead. All hope for the world gone. If the agreement is too weak – we are as good as dead anyway.
It should be very simple. In my own tiny sphere of the world, there is no snow anymore. Any living person in my neighbourhood can notice such simple facts. All the way up to the glaciers’ melting and the arctic areas dissolving, The polarbears starve and die. In fact they even drown because the ice is gone – it is from the ice they catch their food.
Don’t the leaders in the world have their own eyes…we really do not need any more research, any more scientists’ statements, anything…Just open our eyes and see – that the beautiful world we once had is no more. Stop blaming El niño, stop blaming each other, stop thinking only of oil and money and …Start doing! NOW. TOGETHER. It is as simple as that.
We only have this one planet, Earth. We have to save her. Don’t you think she is worth it?
I went to my school tonight, to visit the yearly Open House event. I do not know what I had expected, I guess I did not want to expect anything… did not want to get disappointed.
But they were there, my dear collegues and my sweet students. Many hugs and many of the students expressing how I was greatly missed. Wondering how and what I was doing now, when I would come back and …me wondering about them. Just before the Christmas vacation it’s usually rather tough – especially the second year. And those who will be flying next spring…I promised to come and see them take off, they are already fully fledged.
Old students who left our school last spring and some who left us several years ago – they come back, visiting. Surely this is the very best school to study at…because, why else would so many students return this day – and even other days during the year?
We are a big family. So, how can I leave? On a day like this I just feel all that Love rushing through my veins…I do love them all. All of them.
I could have written about yesterday’s heightened terror alarm in my country; I could have written about the new article on restistant bacteria; I could have written about the war – in so many countries and places in the world. But I will not do that. We are full up.
I support people every day. I need positive energy. We all do. I want to listen to the children and the young. I read articles on people miraculously saved, people who are coming back to life, children who have this life energy despite the world.
Yesterday on TV (I seldom watch TV, but have done so now to follow the terror attacks abroad and the news from our government), there was this young boy, aged 9, whose hands and face had been badly burnt when he was 5. Now he had met his idol, a young singer who also had been severely burnt some years ago, in a train accident – Axel Schylström, 23.
The boy, whose name I do not remember as I came in late in the program, was interviewed on his thoughts about what had happened to him, and how he had tackled his fate. And, what did he think about meeting his idol and why was Axel his idol?
The boy was only 5 when this happened…and at first it was very difficult for him – face and hands badly burnt. Now, he says, he loves playing TV- and computer games with his friends and in fact life is rather good. He has been operated on several times, and luckily his eyes are working and he can use his hands. He is smiling. ”Sometimes people look at me, but I have got used to it”, he says. ”I think that if they wonder what has happened to me – they should ask!”
So, he met his idol, Axel, a singer on the rise, and told the reporter afterwards that you can do anything despite what has happened to you. Axel is a living example of that.
Calm and too early grown-up, this 9-year-old looks into the camera and says: ”You don’t change because of this, you know, inside you are the same guy.”
Bild: Daniel Ohlsson/TV4 , Axel Schylström
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