Category Archives: Reflections

Reflections

What’s happening to my America?

Now it has been repeated again, and we hear about it almost every week! A man gone crazy with a semi-automatic rifle and killing at least 4 people. Often there are many more people shot. It’s called mass shootings. This time it was in El Paso, Texas, and in Dayton, Ohio. A total of 30 killed and many injured, even more mentally traumatized by near-death experiences in both places.

Victims og mass shootings, by gettyimages

Many causes, – also political.

Mass killings and terror have many causes. Both familial, social, and societal–political. And should I add under social causes;- not the least certain media platforms. Here frustrated men can exite each other with different conspiracy theories, and encourage each other to set these ideas into to action.

It may not be a coincidence that mass shootings have increased significantly since Trump became president.

  1. According to a survey by the “Klassekampen” (6.8 2019), there has been an increase in racially motivated hate crime in the US by 18% from 2016 to 2017.
  2. Similarly, the increase in religiously motivated hate crime for the same period has gone up 23%.
  3. There has been a 48% increase in anti-Semitic attacks at the same time.
  4. And when it comes to sexual orientation, gender identity, there has been an 18 percent increase in hate-related attacks.

Especially frightening is that the increase in hate crime in counties where Trump had election campaign events in 2016, increased by 226%! (Uleberg and Shanmugaratnam, 6.8 2019)

Nearly 15,000 people were killed with firearms in the United States in 2018, a survey from the Gun Violence Archive shows. So far in 2019, the figure is just over 8,730. (Aug 6, 2019)

Not all this can be blamed on the Trump administration and the NRA. There are also deeper psychological and social reasons behind the making of a mass murderer. We’ll also look into that through the links of references after this simple but tragic survey below. But having national leaders that split the population in their rhetorics rather than unite it, makes a dangerous climate of “us and them” (And as alcoholism rise where there is very easy access to alcohol, so does murders by firearms increase when such weapons are very easy to attain.)

Mass shootings worldwide in 2019:

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painting by axios.com

What’s gone wrong in the US? Is the country at war with itself?

For a deeper discussion and reflections on the issue of hate crime and terrorism see:

1. http://www.selvuniverset.com/2019/03/20/extremism-and-terror-the-cost-excluding-a-person-from-the-group/

2. http://www.selvuniverset.com/2017/10/03/american-weapon-boomerang/

3. http://www.selvuniverset.com/2018/02/27/schoolmassacres-repeat-frying-pans/

Reflections

A lake for every season and reason

Being There.

Are you lucky enough to have a lake or pond to walk along, when you need a little break from the hustle and bustle of the city? A place where you can clear your head of noise and hum and just, – “be there”? 
Or maybe only walk there along the waterside thinking about the important things in life. Feeling that you breathe with the trees, move with the wildlife around you, or just walk around  there in silence , without thinking about anything at all?
I am that lucky, – and so are all the other citizens in our Capital City.

The path along our lake 15 minutes from the inner capital city, (photo by janeriwaa@gmail.com)

A lake and path for everyone.

Here you will find all kinds of people; – old, adults, youth, children, rich, poor, black and white people, – colored, africans, muslims, christians, jews, non-believers, agnostics, disabled, wheelchair users, gays, transgender people . Even some of your friends may suddenly appear there, without having announced it beforehand.
And of course you’ll find all kinds of joggers. Especially slim girls and ladies aged 17-40, with blond hair and ponytails. They look excactly the same to everyone, as if they had the same parents. Fortunately, all these people mentioned above, are not on the paths around the water at the same time.
If you however like to see and be seen you can choose Friday afternoon, as well as Saturday and Sunday after 10 am. Then it sometimes seems to be a meat market show going on, and a competiton about who is the strongest best looking, fastest and most resilient of them all. This is not the time to go there undisturbed, reflecting and contemplating nature’s wonder.

 

Famous politicians, artists, Prime Ministers and You.

If you go here often you will notice well-known politicians in discussions about the next municipality or parliamentary elections. I have met the prime minister here with the main business organizations in deep discussions about the state of the kingdom. When I was very young and a swimmer I swam the lake from the southern shore to the northern and back in summer. I did it every morning except on saturdays and sundays
By the lake you will regularly meet celebrities and business people of all kinds. Many artists, single mothers and fathers with strollers. You’ll see families of all variants and etnicity, who in the evening after work, go for a picnic or barbecue at the beaches and greens in the area. Then you  often hear guitar and accordion music, or maybe a ghetto blaster that silences the birds and even the waves that hit the beach.

What is emerging in the water?

Can you see a white polar bear swimming in the lake? It’s natural for people in the south of Europe and Asia to think that we have lots of them strolling around in the streets and woods. We only have them living at Svalbard, and dead and stuffed in many hotel vestibules on the mainland. They are sort of mascots for norwegians even if they are the most lethal animal to meet without a rifle. (Photo Psychological Universe: janeriwaa@gmail.com)

The best time to visit the lake and sharpen your senses.

My favorite time along the water is early in the day in midsummer, or later in the evening. In our country the sun is up until 10.30 or 11:00 pm  in summertime.
Alternatively you can go there in the spring or fall, even in winter, – at lunchtime! That is if you have an hour off in the middle of the day. Then you can experience the beautiful song of the blackbird: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3yAR4_xr9g. Or you can sing about the blackbird like Beatles did, here wonderfully performed by Boyce Avenue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SxWtQzL6js
The best is perhaps just to listen to  the sound of the whispering wind in pine and fir trees, small splashes in the water from fish that jump for flies and insects. And the smell of spruce, blueberry, juniper bushes and grass. That’s quite refreshing really!
Happy, sad, lonely, troubled, depressed, in love or recently out of love,- the path and the lake will always welcome you.

Here you can sit and rest for a while in the shadow, with your bike leaning up against a tree. photo: janeriwaa@gmail,com

Philosophers and thinkers have known for centuries the secret of walking by a lake.

Famous philosophers like Rousseau, Nietsche, Kant, Marx and Heidegger all had their lake or pond to wander along, deep in thoughts and reflections. Here you have the famous classical composer Edvard Grieg’s notion of a walk in nature: “I wander deep in thougts”, here performed by pianist Salome Scheidegger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwE7VF9iiz0.  (Some parts of this short melody make me assume the composer had some really tough issues to process when wandering along.)

Find your own path or lake.

I hope you can find your own path around a lake or pond, or along the seaside or even in the woods. Perhaps you have a nice park near your home or some quiet streets where you can balance your mind and move your body. It’s very healthy and  at the same time not to hard to manage for most of us.  I, – on behalf of Psychological Universe wish you a very nice walk wherever you walk!
Here is Handel’s hommage to the wanderer: “Wherever you walk.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak4bcQh_0Sc. ( Don’t be afraid that it is an extraction from an opera. This music video is universally beautiful, both in casting, voice orchestra, timing and scenery. I know, because I’ve heard many horrible versions, and even sung it myself, back then when I had lessons with an opera singer and teacher)

Now get along walking, especially you americans, usually wrapped up in a car when moving about!