Wall of Wisdom

Edit: OK, so I’m posting this a few days later. Just imagine it’s last Saturday, the 9th.

As I write this I still have no internet connection, but I thought… why should that stop me from writing a blog? I’ll just post it when I do get internet!

I’ve been staying in a SEEDS house in Reykjavik. For the first few days James (leader of my work camp in summer, friend, let me stay in SEEDS house – pay attention when you read my blog!) was here too but now he’s doing a photo marathon in downtown Reykjavik. On the first day I arrived there were about a dozen other people here and I am always shy for the first few days in a new place so I hope I didn’t make a bad impression, but if I did I can’t help it. Shyness is shyness, that’s all. It’s not the same as being boring or anti-social or even cowardly. Anyway, now there’s me and four long-term volunteers in the house – Ruth, a Spanish; Marta, an Italian; Amina, ein Berliner; and Luke who is from Derby. Edit: Tobias/Oeck and Eddy came later.

I can’t really describe what the house and the people and the atmosphere are like, and if I try I know I’ll just end up throwing disjointed adjectives at you – alive, colourful, warm, funny, young… so instead I’ll just quote from the Wall of Wisdom. That is, the two pieces of A1 paper hanging in the bathroom with phrases and exchanges scribbled on in thick black marker pen. They range from the witty to the philosophical to the just plain mad. Well, that’s SEEDS!

And because I don’t know when to stop, have some Unbearable Lightness quotes too…

“Not knowing what you want is actually quite natural. We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come.”

“Metaphors are dangerous. Metaphors are not to be trifled with. A single metaphor can give birth to love.”

“A person who longs to leave the place he lives is an unhappy person.”

“Human lives are composed like music.”

“Darkness is the infinite we each carry within us. (Yes, if you’re looking for infinity, just close your eyes!)”

“Kitsch causes two tears to flow in quick succession. The first tear says: How nice to see children running on the grass! The second tear says: How nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running on the grass! It is the second tear that makes kitsch kitsch.”

“Our dreams prove that to imagine is among mankind’s deepest needs.”