Butterflies & Summertime

Boyfriend and I met this butterfly at Stige Ø on an outing there on the 5th of June with boyfriend's parents. Beatiful color! The 5th of June is by the way the National Day of Denmark. Before visiting Stige Ø we made a detour to the harbour in Odense to have a look at recent construction work as the harbour is being transformed into a new housing and leisure area. Later that afternoon we had a nice barbecue in boyfriend's parent's garden.

Boyfriend and I met this butterfly near Dalum Rideskole (a riding school). This is the butterfly you're most likely to meet in Denmark. The short lifespan of butterflies makes me think about an add which was shown every time I went to the movies when I lived in Berlin, it said:

"Die Eintagsfliege hat eine Lebenserwartung von nur einem Tag. Aber ist sie deswegen unglücklich? Nein, kein bisschen! Sie füllt ihrem Tag mit dem Dingen, den sie liebt. Sie tanzt, sie spielt. Sie stürtzt sich von einem Vergnügen ins nächste. Villeicht können wie, die viel länger leben, etwas davon lernen. Stellen sie sich vor wenn wir, wie die Eintagsfliege, jeden Augenblick geniessen würden. Was wäre das für ein Leben?"

[English translation: The mayfly has a life expectancy of only a single day. But does that make her unhappy? Not, not at all. She fills her day with the things she loves. She dances, she plays. She moves from one joy to the next. Maybe we, who live much longer, could learn from that. Imagine if we, like the mayfly, enjoyed every moment. What kind of life would that be?]

I think that would be a wonderful life and I think that it is valuable to consider this question everyday!

A word about Tinker Bell and Wonderland

Once upon a time James Matthew Barrie contemplated the story about Peter Pan and in the process he made up the character Tinker Bell. There are however as many Tinker Bells as there are people who have portrayed her. There is the version of J.M. Barrie, but there is also the versions of Disney. It doesn’t even stop there. In fact there are as many Tinker Bells as there are audiences who perceive her. Also, Tinker Bell changes. It is implied that she is so tiny that she can only contain one emotion at a time. When she is angry this is all she feels. She has no coexisting emotions that can counterbalance her anger and hence her actions are only inspired by anger. However when she is happy she is completely happy. The way we would all like to be.

I like to think about Tinker Bell as representative of most of us. At least those of who are very emotional! I like to think of her that way because it makes us remember that people are more complex than they might seem to us. When I was younger I tended to perceive others as stereotypes, at least to some degree and I thought that feeling complete was about figuring out if you were this or that type. But if you think about it, it gets harder to attach labels to people you know well. This is because no-one can be reduced to some stereotype. Luckily we contain much more than that.

Over to another story: While in Wonderland Alice is experiencing herself and the world differently and she begins to contemplate a rather big question and asks herself: ”Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle!” And, indeed, it is a great puzzle to realize who you are, but I think it is about realizing that you’re not one thing and avoid confining yourself to a certain self-image, but explore every facet of yourself.

Wonderland as well as Peter Pan’s Neverland are great settings for stories. Neverland is the place where children never grow up. J.M. Barrie describes the variations in the many Neverlands; each person has his own – John’s had a lagoon with flamingos flying over it, while Michael’s had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it.

I think it is important to preserve a Neverland inside ourselves and decide to never really grow up, at least in the sense of continuing to use our imagition and make a conscious decision to continue to have fun.

To me Wonderland is a place of strange characters and a place where strange and unexpected things happen. All the time. And so I think Wonderland is very much like the real world. If we are open to it we can meet strange characters and experience unexpected things in this world.

Just as I am obsessed with great stories – reading them and attempting to write them – I think this world is also a great setting for stories. Real-life stories. My obsession with stories makes me determined to want to make the best of my own.

You only get one life and it is all about leading an interesting and fulfilled life and more than anything it is about being happy. And we all have some intuitive idea about what that word means even though its so hard to define. I think one crucial step is to really grasp and live after the mantra Carpe Diem and I think that with a little bit of Neverland and a little bit of Wonderland and not to forget, a little fairy dust, it is possible to achieve this. If you belive it Tinker Bell will make you fly.