In summer vacation it seems like people are more agitated and hostile against fellow vacationers than ever before, there’s absolutely no patience what so ever, especially when there’s a bit of a shorting of parking lots. It has come to that I’m almost surprised when I see a friendly face.

But this blog post about talking to strangers made me laugh out loud, I just have to link back to it. This is the sort of glimmering gem that keeps me going the rest of the day with a smile on my face. My armour against the harsh world gets a little bit thicker and I can withstand for a little while longer. There are more of us wishing for the Stars Hollow bliss to be real. Thank you Margaret.

… Living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves; singing songs, drinking wine, diverting ourselves in just floating, floating; … refusing to be disheartened, like a gourd floating along with the river current: this is what we call the floating world…

We walked up to one of the houses to take a closer look at the sculptures. The house looked like nobody lived there for years, the ground covered with garbage. Rusty metal, old mattresses, large pieces of plastic and wood and on top of one of the piles a grinning cow cranium. Suddenly a sturdy lady with long blond hair and piercing blue eyes appeared from nowhere screaming at us. Apparently she still lived there, in hiding from the police who tried to force her out. She refused to leave since there weren’t anywhere for her to go with her sculptures. When she understood that we were just there admiring her work she cooled down, trying to get us to buy instead. But when my aunt asked the prize of one of the smaller cow heads she blurted out – 25 000 €. I’m not sure she will sell very much with prices like that, but maybe that isn’t her intention. I’m not sure what to think about this lady, but one has to admire people who have the guts to create something beautiful even if it seems crazy to others. She truly is a gifted artist, there’s no question about that.

Do not all charms fly
At the mere touch of cold philosophy?
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:
We know her woof, her texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an Angel’s wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine –
Unweave a rainbow

[John Keats, Lamia 1820]

It is said that the Newton’s deconstruction of the rainbow inspired Keats to write this poem. This short poem capture the absolute essence of the human ambiguity towards science. Too much knowledge is a threatening concept. But matter is only dead when scratching a little on the surface, underneath a Universe more unbelievable and magic than ever before shortly appears. But the human mind is constructed in such a way that we can only see a slice of the truth at a time, never the whole picture at once. We will never be able conquer all the mysteries.

As a matter of fact everything is possible in the Universe, it’s only a question of time. Every fantasy, no matter how intricate the thought might be, that a human being can ever create is possible in the Universe. But while it takes the human one minute to come up with the thought it might take the universe four billion years to make it happen. Time is only important for us short lived beings. Miracles happen all the time around us. If there is light there will be eyes that can experience it. If there is sound there will be some kind of hearing equipment. The rainbow is still the heavenly flower garden it has always been, even though we know the texture of her appearance.

I rang the little bell and a sleepy man appeared at the door. He said that there weren’t any rooms available right now but that we could sit down and wait and see if any guests were to be leaving in the morning. We were directed towards a terrace. It was still dark but we could hear water down below, understanding we must be very close to Ganges river. Most of the employees of the hostel were sleeping under open air directly on the stone floor of the restaurant right beside us. We sat in complete silence, trying not to disturb them. The sleepy man at the door had to open for more tourists all through the rest of the early morning. Suddenly we felt very glad we came there so early since the line was building up at the apparently very popular hostel. When the first sun rays of dawn appeared at the horizon we understood why everybody had come to this particular place. I’ve never seen such a beautiful sunrise before. The view of Ganges was certainly breath taking. Soon people were lining up to do morning puja and the tourist boats annoyingly ran up and down the river taking pictures of them. But none of them seemed to really notice.

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream

I always wondered about the phrase Life is but a dream. It suddenly struck me that this must be what in Mahayana (great vehicle, sometimes boat) buddhism is called śūnyatā – void, unreal or non-existent. It’s kind of a peculiar thing to teach to children that everything you see is really non-existent. On the other hand, for children this might just not be so very strange after all. Children are curious and crave the answers to questions most adults stopped asking a long time ago.

I grew up in the countryside, far away from the disturbing pinkish city lights. The sky were as black as black can be. In winter people living in the northern regions do not see very much of the sun, but that didn’t use to bother us. We went for long walks only guided by the light from the distant stars above. I remember when my dad once pointed at the sky and told me that when we look into space we look back in time because the light that hits the human eye on Earth has been travelling for so long that we only see ancient pictures of stars that existed millions of years ago and might even ceased to exist by now.

I thought about this for a while and just made it part of my view of the world. A creature standing today on a planet far far away, about 4.5 billion light years away looking in our direction with a high tech telescope would be able to see the astonishing birth of our solar system. In the beam of light information is stored for eternity unless something is blocking it’s way. Amazingly enough there are such gaps in space reaching back almost to the birth of the universe. The Hubble telescope was directed towards a spot like this and was able to see 13 billion years back in time. This is a concept that is best if understood in an early age otherwise difficult philosophical questions appear. What am I in all of this? Is my contribution to the universe information in a hand full a light beams rushing through the universe bearing witness of my existence millions of years ago? Merrily, merrily. Life is but a dream.

Studio Tord Boontje model