The picture you are looking at shows Sophia Church (Sofia Kyrka), just opposite, and due north of, my apartment in Stockholm. As you can see from the church clock, it is precisely midnight. I arrived back home, after 12 weeks of travel, on the evening of 22 June, just some twenty minutes before taking this photo. For you, dear readers, not familiar with Sweden and its peculiarities, you are witnessing the famous white night of the Nordic midsummer.
All was quiet on this blessed occasion. The sun had, of course, already set, but was ambling along, slowly but surely, just a wee bit below the horizon, keeping the northern sky full of light, against which the church tower stood as an enticing silhouette. Suddenly, birds started to twitter, as if being confused between dusk and dawn. And right they were in being confused, since dusk merged with dawn without an intermittent period of dark. Soon the zone of lightness would pass the church, getting more brilliant along its way until, an hour later, the first golden colours of the sun would start colouring its lower fringe, announcing the newly borne day.
It has been a looong trip this time and it was good to be back home again. But my joy at looking at the midnight wonders was mixed with sadness. What I had won in regaining the familiarity of Hammarby Sjöstad, I had lost in leaving Berkeley. For the first time in many years, I nurtured a sharp feeling of sorrow and longing, which had appeared already when mounting the plane in San Francisco, but now came to the fore with a vengeance. But should that surprise me? Had I not embarked on my last great adventure that now had come to its end, at long last?
Thinking back to the many weeks spent in California, it slowly started to dawn on me why I had so eagerly engaged in travelling there and staying there for a prolonged period. It was my subconscious that was responsible for that decision, my conscious self having scant to do with it! Way back in the seventies, when I staid in California as a young man, I was not ready for all the wonders to behold in that benighted region. Too engaged was I in my daily labours of taking courses, studying books, writing drafts of my thesis, to be able to take it all in, the marvellous things to see and to experience, which were literally to be found just under my nose. Still, my mind must have observed all this at the margin, and stored the information as a job unfinished, to be further looked into at a later time, if and when circumstances permitted. This is, I realize it now, what made me jump at the opportunity of going back!
But let us not delve too much into psychological intricacies! This blog has come to an end and it is time to acknowledge it. Let me put the finishing touches by thanking you, dear readers, for your patience and staying power, in following me through the incredible amount of 34 postings. A special “Thanks!” is due to Lars, Per Magnus and Kari, my most faithful and elaborate commentators, who kept me on my toes with their manifold ideas and suggestions; to Richard for letting Eva know about my trip; to Eva, for her cordial welcome, both in the SF Symphony and in Stanford; to Heidi, for gifting me invaluable advice to get the blog started and going; and, last but not least, to my good friends in Berkeley, Nobuko, Akiko and Edward, for taking me along to numerous excursions. Without you all, I am sure I would have tired of preparing further posts long time ago, maybe, already after the first three or four chapters.
As a last, and special, treat for all of you, I would invite you to join me, by double clicking on the address below, in paying a final tribute to this marvellous place that we visited together during all these weeks in spring 2010!
Flowers to Berkeley!
Flowers to Berkeley!
